Rewrite the Stars
by Princessstarryknight
Summary: (Post-Canon Fix-it, Spoilers for Season 8, Rating may change). Lance is still mourning Allura and Pidge has spent the past five years comforting him, pushing aside her own feelings for him. Will Lance finally move on and realize Pidge is the one for him? Keith had been in love with Allura and when she comes back to life he gets a second chance to be with her but will he take it?
1. All I Want for Christmas is You

Keith had been tense all week. But it wasn't because of anything that had to do with the blades, no things had been fine with them. And it wasn't his mother and Kolivan asking him for some assistance in quieting minor disputes between the galra either. No this was because he's been sensing something. Something he hasn't sensed in years. The Blue Lion.

At first he thought he must be imagining things. The lions hadn't contacted them in a year. And even if they did, why would the Blue Lion contact him? Why not Black? The only reason he could think of was the fact that he had been able to sense Blue's presence all those years ago after he dropped out of the Garrison and was living alone in his shack before Shiro escaped Galra prison. So perhaps that's why he was sensing it again now?

As he laid in his cot on the Blade of Marmora base he couldn't help but close his eyes and focus on that energy, and sure enough he felt the pull, Blue was reaching out to him and pulling him towards a certain direction. Keith grabbed the bedsheets in his fist and gripped them tightly. His eyes opened and a look of determination was set on his face. There was only one reason he could think of why Blue would be reaching out to him.

He sat up in his bed, threw back the covers, and began putting on his blade suit. He only paused when he heard his wolf growl behind him. He turned to face the now massive animal that was loyal only to him and noticed the confused and concerned head tilt he gave and sighed.

"I know what you're thinking." Keith tells his wolf. "But this isn't like the last few times, I think she might really be out there."

Kosmo whined and nuzzled his head into his owner's chest.

"I know it might be impossible but...I can't think like that. I have to believe there's a chance. That's the only thing that's been keeping me going (and me, the author too tbh)." Keith says. "This time I think it's really her, and I'm gonna bring her back. I have to. She's sacrificed too much for the good of the universe. She doesn't deserve this fate."

With that he slid his knife into it's sheath behind his back and walked towards the hangar with Kosmo at his side.

Keith expertly flew his ship through an asteroid belt, his gifted skills as a pilot making the difficult voyage a breeze. Keith closed his eyes again and directed the ship towards the pull he was sensing from Blue.

Kosmo whined as he turned around in the passenger seat, sensing the shift in energy as well. Suddenly he put his front paws up on the dashboard and began barking and whining at something up ahead.

"What is it boy?" Keith asks.

He opens up his eyes and gasps when he sees the bright blue nebula in front of him. It was shaped like a woman, and he knew exactly which woman it was.

"Allura..." He breathes and his mouth cracks into a small smile.

He gasps again when he hears the roars of the lions. He watches as all five of them fly past his little ship and make their way towards the nebula that was shaped like the princess.

"What are they doing?" Keith asks and Kosmo whines and tilts his head.

The lions all stopped at the nebula. The Black Lion roared and all of the other lions roared in unison and they began to glow.

Keith's heart soared with joy when he realized what this could mean.

"She's coming back...She has to be Kosmo!" Keith exclaims and grips the controls. "Please. Please, bring her back." He pleads to the lions. "I'll do anything, I'll trade my life for hers if I have to just please...let her come back to me. I need her to be alive. I need her in my arms. I need to tell her that I..." He bites his lip at the last part as tears fall down his cheeks.

Suddenly all five lions ran into the nebula. There was a flash of light and the lights inside of Keith's ship flashed and he gasped as he felt a surge of quintessence energy run through him.

At that same time, in a distant part of space on New Altea, Lance woke up from his slumber when he felt the markings on his cheeks burning. He winced and rubbed them but couldn't make out what was going on.

Keith opened his eyes, his face filled with hope as he scanned space for Allura's body. But it was nowhere to be found. His heart sunk and shattered into a million pieces. Kosmo's ears drooped as he gave his owner a sad look and Keith shook his head as the tears streamed down his face and tried as hard as he could to concentrate on Blue's signature. But it was gone. He couldn't sense Blue or Allura anymore.

"No. No. They can't all be gone!" He exclaims. "They were supposed to bring her back! Why else would they go into her nebula like that! Why destroy the last remnants of her and themselves if it was all for nothing!? That makes no sense! I was so sure there was a way to bring her back." He sniffed and rubbed his watery eyes. "But I guess I was wrong. This world is too cruel for that. She's always done everything she could to help people. To help me and the other paladins. And now I couldn't even find a way to bring her back, make her happy...I'll never see her again. I don't deserve to ever see her again."

He bends over the controls and weeps. Kosmo nuzzled into his side as Keith mourned Allura's loss.

Four years later...

Colleen Holt was trying out a new recipe for a Christmas ham when she heard her daughter call her.

"MOM!" Pidge screeched from upstairs.

Colleen smiled and giggled to herself as she went upstairs to her daughter's bedroom and found her standing by her open suitcase on her bed with her fists clenched and a frown etched on her face.

"What's the matter dear?" Colleen innocently asks.

"Two things actually." Pidge says and reaches inside of her suitcase. "One is that I am certainly old enough to pack my own suitcase and two," Pidge pulled out the plastic bag filled with tiny foil squares. "I definitely will not be needing these!"

Colleen laughed and shook her head.

"Are you sure about that peanut?" She asks. "I figured that after five years of these frequent visits to Lance's farm that something might be happening between the two of you."

"Mom!" Pidge whined and dropped the bag on the floor. "You know why I've been going there." She says sadly.

Colleen sighed and her gaze shifted to the floor.

"So he still isn't over her yet is he?" She asks.

"No." Pidge says softly and zips up her suitcase. "And I don't expect him to be anytime soon. He really shouldn't be living on New Altea. Everywhere he looks he's reminded of Allura. He can't move on, it's not healthy for him."

"Then I'm glad you've been going to visit him so often." Colleen says. "You are probably a welcome distraction from the sorrow that his surroundings bring."

"I like to think so." Pidge says and closes up her suitcase and picking it up off of her bed. "I'll see you in a week mom."

"I'll see you in a week Katie." Colleen says and hugs Pidge before letting her go.

Pidge looked out the window and smiled when she saw Lance standing outside waiting for her on the tarmac. She landed her ship and ran right over to him.

"Hey there pigeon!" Lance says and holds his arms out for Pidge.

She runs into his arms and he catches her and stumbles back a bit before regaining his balance while holding her tight.

"I missed you so much!" Pidge says and tightens her grip around his shoulders.

"I did too Pidge." Lance says and rests the side of his head against hers a bit more.

"Ah welcome back to New Altea Miss Holt." An elderly Altean says and walks forward on a cane towards Pidge and Lance.

Pidge looked confused.

"Uh Lance who is..." She asked.

"Oh this is Rayna." Lance introduces. "She's one of the elders that lived on the colony. She helps take care of the kids here and she's been teaching me about Altean culture."

"He's like the grandson I never had." Rayna says and gives Lance an affectionate smile that he returns.

"Awww." Pidge says and smiles at them both.

"He's told me so much about you pigeon." Rayna says.

"Oh uh, it's Pidge actually." Pidge corrects while Lance snickers.

"Oh my apologies." Rayna says and pulls out a quilt from behind her back. "I wanted to give this to you and Lance for the farmhouse."

"Oh it's beautiful." Pidge says and takes it from the Altean.

"It's been in my family for generations." Rayna explains as Pidge and Lance marvel over the craftsmanship. "They say it has special powers. We call it the baby maker."

Pidge and Lance's cheeks heated up and Pidge quickly passed the quilt into Lance's hands. Rayna laughed while Pidge and Lance laughed nervously while looking between each other, trying to gage how uncomfortable each other was with the situation.

"Well uh...Pidge and I don't have that kind of relationship but thank you for the lovely gift..." Lance says and gingerly holds the quilt in his hands.

"Oh I know." Rayna says and hobbles away on her cane. "I just thought you might save it for later." She says and looks back at them and winks.

They both gave Rayna huge fake smiles and waved at her as she walked away. Once she was out of sight Lance chucked the quilt at Chip who was climbing out of the ship.

"Ah! Pidge! My visuals have been obstructed! I cannot process any visual stimuli-" He stops rambling when Pidge lifts the quilt from his head. "Oh thank goodness!" He sighs in relief.

"Hey there Chip how's it hangin'!" Lance says and holds out his fist towards the robot.

"Lance! It's wonderful to see you!" Chip says and skips over to him.

He looked at Lance's fist and then punches him in the gut.

Pidge gasped and ran over to Lance who was doubled over in pain.

"Nice hit." Lance coughs.

"Thank you! I have been working on hand to hand combat as a paladin of the Voltron Force. Pidge thinks my skills have improved. I'm so glad you decided to allow me to test my skills by making that hand gesture signaling to me that you wanted me to punch you." Chip explains and smiles at Lance.

"Yeah...that's what I was doing." Lance lies and smiles at the robot.

Chip went over and picked up Pidge's suitcase.

"Well what are we waiting for!" Chip says. "Let's go see Kaltenecker and the rest of the McClain clan!"

Pidge and Lance chuckle as they watch Chip skip off towards the farm. Lance looked down and noticed Pidge holding his forearm. He smiled and didn't tell her to move it, he had grown used to Pidge's touch, in fact, he welcomed it and even found himself craving it sometimes. He was so overjoyed to have her with him during this time of year.

"Well, I guess it's time to go start Christmas with the McClain's." Pidge says.

"This is gonna be a fun week." Lance says and leads Pidge to the farmhouse.

This visit was no different from any of the others. As soon as Pidge came to the juniberry fields she was greeted by Kaltenecker and Lance's nieces and nephews who were getting bigger every day. Lance's siblings all gave her tight hugs and praised her arrival while Lance looked on and smiled, happy that his family had embraced her.

After Christmas dinner Pidge sat on the floor of the living room while the other members of the family were on the couch, both Lance's niece and nephew were curled into Pidge's sides and tugging on her shirt and pointing at the screen every time Santa showed up, or the elves did something cool with magic and the kids would explain to her how Santa's magic worked.

Veronica noticed that Lance's attention was not on the claymation movie playing on the TV, but was instead directed towards Pidge interacting with the kids.

"Happy your girlfriend's here for Christmas?" Veronica asks.

Lance's face heated up and his head whipped around to find his older sister smirking at him.

"W-What?" He asks in a high-pitched voice. "First Rayna and now you. Come on Veronica, you know I don't think about Pidge like that."

"Oh I think you do." Veronica insists.

"I don't." Lance says, seriously this time. "Besides, I know you're only teasing me because you're jealous that your girlfriend isn't here with us this year."

Veronica scoffs and rolls her eyes.

"Acxa is busy on a mission this year that she couldn't get out of." Veronica says simply and crosses her arms. "Maybe I should have asked Keith to come spend the Hollidays with us?"

Lance scoffed and smirked at his sister.

"Nice try, but it's pretty clear that Keith isn't exactly the romantic type. Girls may be hitting on him left and right but I've never once seen him go any further than a quick dance and a friendly drink with them." Lance says. "I feel bad for Shiro and Curtis. He's been third-wheeling them for five years now. In fact, he's even spending Christmas with them this year. They've been trying to set him up with some of their friends for ages now but...He keeps turning them down."

"Do you know why?" Veronica asks.

"Beats me." Lance says.

Keith looked out over the desert from the window of Shiro and Curtis's small apartment on Christmas Eve, a glass of whiskey in his hand and a look of longing on his face as he shifted his gaze to the stars. He sighed and looked back down at his glass, wondering if he should just down the rest of it when he felt a small tug on his ponytail.

"Ow." He says and turns around to face the culprit.

Shrio and Curtis's son Adam laughed and Keith couldn't help but smile at the small child that resembled his best friend and his husband. He remembered the day that Shiro and Curtis first introduced Adam.

He and the other paladins were all arguing about something during the Allura Day feast three years ago and then out of nowhere The Circle of Life started playing and everyone turned around to see Curtis holding up a baby Altean.

"You guys are parents now! What the quiznack-" Pidge had exclaimed.

"LANGUAGE!" Shiro and Curtis had scolded her.

They explained how Lance set them up with an orphan Altean infant and how grateful to him they were for his help. They also warned everyone not to be too surprised if Adam started to look like them as he grew up, because due to their shape-shifting abilities, Alteans will naturally take on the appearance of those that raise them. Which explained why Keith was face to face with a three year old Altean who had Shiro's grey hair and floof and Curtis's dark skin and blue eyes.

"What are you looking at Uncle Keith?" Adam asked him. "Are you looking for Santa?"

"Yeah." Keith says and puts his hands on his hips. "In fact I think I just saw him fly by a second ago..."

Adam gasped and his eyes went wide. Keith smirked as the toddler climbed up onto the back of the couch and pressed his face against the window.

"Where! Where! I can't see him!" Adam exclaims and Keith smiles and sips his drink.

"Just keep looking I'm sure you'll find him." Keith says.

He hears some giggles and turns to find a group of girls in very pretty dresses watching him interact with Adam and then looking him up and down and whispering amongst themselves while smiling at him. He let out a short laugh and turned away and looked back to the window. What is it about men interacting with kids that's so attractive to women?

"You should go talk to them." Shiro says to Keith.

Keith turned to his friend who had come to pick up his son and bring him to bed.

"Nah." Keith says and swirls the liquid in his glass. "I'm not in the mood."

"Maybe I just need to give you another drink then to change your mind?" Shiro suggests.

Keith laughs and shakes his head no.

"Shiro. You know that there's no amount of alcohol in the world that'll make me do that." Keith says.

"Yeah, that experiment was a huge fail." Shiro sighed. "And taking care of you the day after was worse than our first few nights with this guy." Shiro says and bounces Adam in his arms.

Keith smiled at Shiro, happy that he had a family.

"But seriously, you should at least have some sort of companionship other than Kosmo." Shiro says. "I know you're not happy being alone, that's why you keep hanging out with me and Curtis. And you'll always be like family to us but you should try to find some sort of family of your own you know."

"Yeah." Keith says and swirls his glass. "You're right. As always."

Shiro smiled at him and then Adam waved goodbye over his shoulder as Shiro carried him off to bed. Keith waved back and then noticed a girl checking him out from across the room. She had dark brown hair and tan skin, but her bright blue eyes instantly reminded him of Allura. Perhaps this was a sign, he thought as he walked over to her.

"Hey Honey!" Curtis calls from the living room.

"What is it?" Shiro asks, coming into the room.

"Look what's on TV!" Curtis says and slings his arms around his husband's waist.

"Oh dear God..." Shiro says and places his hand on his forehead when he sees what's on.

"Hey it's that show they made about you guys!" One of their friends says and laughs. "Get Keith in here! He's gonna want to see this!"

Keith reluctantly walked into the room, Shiro surprised to see a girl following him and he instantly regretted it when he saw his cartoon-self on the screen and everyone cheered.

"I think this is a new one." Curtis says. "They made some sort of movie out of your last mission to defeat Haggar. Called it Fleet of Doom or something."

"Yeah but it's very different from what actually happened." Shiro says.

His chest tightens when he sees the princess's character wake up after being revived.

"I wish this is how it went." He says and Curtis kisses his temple in an attempt to comfort him.

Shiro turned to see how Keith was holding up. He was holding back tears, and his knuckles were white as he gripped the glass. The princess and Keith held hands and professed their love for each other and everyone wolf whistled and turned to Keith.

"Whoa I didn't know you and the princess had a thing." The girl next to Keith says.

"We didn't." Keith says sharply. "She loved Lance. But that doesn't even matter. She's dead now and she's not coming back like in this movie."

He turned and left and Shiro excused himself to follow Keith.

He wiped tears from his eyes as he made his way down the stairs of the apartment and Shiro chased him.

"Keith wait!" He says and Keith stops. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Keith says harshly.

"Well you don't sound it." Shiro says and Keith sighs. "Look I know you miss her a lot. I do too. But that's just a movie. Everyone knows that you and Allura were never-"

"Yeah but I wish we were." Keith says.

He turns to Shiro and the older man's eyes widened.

"That movie did get something right. I loved her Shiro." Keith admits.

"You...You-then why didn't you-" Shiro starts.

"Because she was with Lotor. And then Lance." Keith answers. "I thought she'd be happier with them. At least I expected her to be happy with Lance. He was over the moon! He'd never accept my leadership if he knew how I felt about Allura. I couldn't stir up drama in the team that would prevent us from forming Voltron. So I put my feelings aside for the sake of the mission. But now she's dead..."

"Keith-"

"That movie got it all wrong. Not because it showed I love Allura but because it showed that my love for her is strong enough to bring her back to life!" Keith exclaimed. "If that were true, she'd be here now! Living happily ever after as Queen of New Altea, married to Lance and having a bunch of little princes and princesses-"

"Who's to say she wouldn't have gotten together with you if she knew how you felt?" Shiro asks.

"What?" Keith asks in shock. "You think she'd dump Lance for me?"

"I can't guarantee it." Shrio says. "But she did care for you. More than you know. I think knowing how you felt might have at least pushed her to reconsider-"

"Well we'll never know now will we." Keith says. "I had a chance and I blew it. If there's one thing I'd want for Christmas it would be for her to be alive again. And if she were to love me back that would just be icing on the cake but...no matter how many movies and comics they make about us that have me and her end up together, we'll never be together in this universe."

"Maybe you could be." Shiro says, trying to give his friend some sort of hope for the Holliday. "Maybe this is the universe giving you a sign. No matter what, love always finds a way. Slav told me that if two people end up together in every reality, then it's nearly impossible for there to be a reality where they're not together."

"Well then I guess we've achieved the impossible." Keith says. "Thanks for trying to help me but she's gone Shiro. There's no way to bring her back now. Merry Christmas." He says and Shiro sighs as Keith pats him on the shoulder before heading down to his bike to go home.

Shiro looked out the window of the stairwell and frowned when he saw a star shining brightly over the desert.

"Has that star always been so bright?" He asks himself before turning to go back to the party.

"Whoa...look at all the pretty stars." Lance's niece said as she looked out at the constellations over New Altea from the telescope.

"I want a turn!" The nephew exclaimed and jumped up and down.

"You already had one!" Pidge laughed and placed the cap over the lens. "Now I think your mom is here to bring you both to bed."

"Awwww..." They whine.

"Hey if you guys don't go to sleep then that means Santa can't bring you any presents." Their mom reminds them.

They both gasp and run to their bedrooms. Pidge thanked her and wished her goodnight before she walked down the hall to her bedroom. She was about to close the blinds when she noticed Lance outside in the juniberry fields. She sighed and turned away from the window.

Lance was staring longingly at a flower, wishing that the woman who loved them still existed.

"Hey stranger." Pidge says and breaks him from his trance.

She came to sit down next to him.

"You know Santa's not gonna bring you any presents if you're out here pouting and crying." She jokes and pokes his cheek.

"I know." Lance says and looks at the flower. "But I don't care. There's only one thing I'd want for Christmas..."

"Me too." Pidge says and looks at the flower.

"I just can't believe she's gone." Lance says. "I know she was a life giver but...I never expected her to give her own for us."

"She loved you Lance." Pidge says. "That's why she gave her life for you and all of us."

Lance bit his lip as Pidge placed her hand over his and squeezed it.

"I know it must hurt and I wish there was something I could do to bring her back for you but I can't." Pidge says. "The stars just aren't aligned for that I guess." She says and looks up at the sky.

"I don't think they ever will be to revive Allura." Lance says and twirls the flower and sighs. "That's just crazy to think about."

"Well lots of crazy things have happened." Pidge says and smiles. "I'm sure that wherever she is she's happy though. She's got her family up there."

"But what about the family that misses her down here..." Lance mumbles and Pidge sighs and hugs him.

Keith sighed as he parked his bike by his shack and made his way over to his house. It was still partially under construction but he had a complete first floor with a kitchen, living space and bathroom that he was pretty satisfied with.

As he climbed up the stairs to the deck he looked up at the stars and did something he hadn't done in years as Shiro's words came back to him.

"Please..." He prayed. "A miracle happened once on this night a long time ago...I know I haven't done anything to deserve it but she has. So please, for her, just let her live. Let her be happy."

Kosmo whined and nuzzled his side. Keith looked down at him and smiled, rubbing his head and muttering a soft "Amen" up to the sky before going back inside, pushing aside tinsel and Christmas decorations from the Blade's surprise Christmas party that they threw him earlier this week and then pulled out his bed from his new pull out couch and fell asleep, Kosmo curled into his side.

The star that shone over the desert only grew brighter, then it lined up over the tip of the mountain that once housed the Blue Lion and a beam of light that had been traveling across space for five years shot straight down towards an opening in the mountaintop and all of the markings inside the cave lit up in a glorious Blue Light. That light reached down to the center circle where the Blue Lion once sat and the insignia glowed brightly.

"Ah!" Lance exclaimed as he felt his face burning up.

"What's wrong?" Pidge asks, concern on her face.

"I think it's the markings." Lance says. "It's like their energy is being awakened or something!"

"What energy?" Pidge asks and cups her hands on his face under the glowing marks. "Allura's energy?"

The cave glowed so bright that it would have blinded anyone inside. The only noise heard inside was a gasping breath and then a beam of light shot out from the cave and traveled across the desert. It passed through Keith's house and startled him awake. Past Shiro and Curtis, making Shiro sit up in bed while his husband remained asleep. It left Earth and passed over Hunk on the Balmera, who awoke with the Balmerans as the surge passed them.

And as Lance was wincing in pain with a concerned Pidge trying to figure out what was going on the surge passed through both of them and they both gasped as everything around them settled down once more.

"What was that?" Lance asked.

"Well whatever it was..." Pidge says shakily. "It took away your markings."

"What!?" Lance exclaims and touches his face. "Then that means that...whatever that thing was...it must have had something to do with Allura."

Allura grunted as she hit the cold hard ground of the cave. She lay there for a few minutes, letting the energy around her settle before sitting up. She was still in her paladin armor, but her hair had fallen out of it's bun, and her quintessence formed a glowing purple aura around her.

Her mind was filled with questions, but the force that was pulling her to move out of the cave was stronger. She pressed herself up against the wall and used it to help her stand as she shakily began to walk towards the exit of the cave.

"Purpose..." She muttered. "Peace..." She gasped when she stepped out of the cave and into the desert night.

"Happiness." She whispered as she fell on the ground. "Love...Mother, Father." She allowed her energy to guide her to turn in a certain direction. "Daughter..." She muttered as she held her stomach and stood up. She muttered something else, "Kei-" The rest lost on the wind as a gust threatened to blow her over. "Voltron." She gasped and stumbled before stopping and regaining her ground before continuing onwards.

The desert creatures didn't know what to make of the glowing alien girl wandering across the sand, mumbling random words. Eventually she reached a small shack and a house under construction and she smiled.

"Come back to us..." She muttered and stumbled across the sand and made her way up the steps.

She tripped on a loose board and fell forward into the door with a soft grunt and a wince. Footsteps and a bark were heard inside and then the door opened and she smiled at an awe-struck Keith.

"A-Allura?" He stammered and she smiled at him.

"Keith..." She breathed with a smile and then her eyes closed and her aura faded.

She groaned as she suddenly collapsed and Keith caught her, just like Lance did all those years ago when she first woke up after 10,000 years. And now it was Keith's turn. He fell to his knees on the ground and cradled her in his arms.

"Allura?" He asked again.

He teared up and let out a soft sob, cupping her cheek and trying to think of how this was possible.

"If I'm dreaming...never wake me up." He tells Kosmo.

The wolf nods in affirmation.

"But if I'm not...Then this truly is a Christmas miracle." He says and lets out a short laugh and kisses her forehead as she laid unconscious in his arms. "You came back to me..."


	2. Awakening

**A/N:** Merry Christmas Eve! I hope you like this chapter! I've got the last Christmas-themed one coming on Wednesday and then after that, these won't be Holliday themed anymore. Okay maybe one New Years chapter but then after that it's just a standard fix-it fic!

* * *

Keith cupped Allura's cheek with one hand and squeezed her hand with his other one as she slept. He had laid her down on his bed and had carefully changed her out of her paladin armor and given her a pair of his old sweatpants and a Garrison t-shirt that was covered in holes but it was probably better for her to be wearing than her restrictive paladin armor.

"Allura please wake up." He begs and kisses the back of her hand and presses it to his cheek.

She grunts in her sleep then opens her mouth.

"Keith." She muttered.

"Yes?" Keith asks and leans into her, thinking that she was calling for him.

But instead she went on to mutter another word while she smiled softly in her sleep.

"Darling." She whispered.

"Darling?" He asked and blushed from the nickname.

He scratched the back of his neck and shyly looked down at his lap.

"Since when do you call me darling princess?" He asks.

She stayed silent and unmoving.

Keith sighed, realizing that she was just rambling again like she had been a few minutes before when he first laid her down.

Suddenly, a thought struck him and he ran over to his desk, cursing as he banged his toe against the metal stand of the pull-out and got out a pad of paper and a pencil and started writing down the words she was saying. Since his dad was a fireman he had some friends who worked as EMTs and in the hospital. One of them mentioned having a patient who was in a coma but would sometimes say random words. So they would write down what he would say, thinking that the words were a window into seeing what he was currently thinking. So he wrote down the first two words Allura said.

"Altea." She said and he wrote it down.

He sat on the bed beside her for half an hour and wrote down every word she said.

"Peace. Daughter. Rift. Destruction. Kei-"

He heard his phone ring and he growled and turned to it. Thankfully he had caught the rest of the word and jotted it down before going to see who it was. It was Shiro.

"Voltron." She whispered.

He quickly wrote it down and then answered Shiro's call.

"Hey man what's up?" Keith asks.

"Keith, hey!- Wow, you sound awake for 2 in the morning." Shiro says in a gruff morning voice. "Did that weird energy wake you up too?"

"Uh yeah." Keith says and looks at Allura, asleep on his bed.

He heard Shiro let out a deep breath from the other line before speaking again.

"Then if you and I felt it, I bet the other paladins did too." Shiro says.

"I guess it's possible." Keith says and watches Kosmo jump up on the bed and curl up next to Allura.

"Keith, you know that energy...it felt like," Keith bites his lip as he hears Shiro take a pause before continuing. "Allura."

"Yeah. It did." Keith says and smiles at her. "I think what we should do is wait until morning, or at least until we hear from the others. We can all have a big video chat together and discuss what just happened."

"That sounds like a good plan, team leader." Shiro teases and Keith chuckles a bit and runs his hand through his bangs.

His smile only grows wider when he hears Adam's tiny voice on the other line.

"Santa?" Adam softly asks himself.

"Oh shit!" He hears Shiro whisper.

He hears some hurried footsteps and fumbling around in the dark before the call ended.

He put his phone down and then walked over to Allura and sat beside her and smiled at her.

"I'm so glad you're back." He tells her. "Everyone's going to be so happy when I tell them. Especially Lance..." He sighs and looks down at his lap. "I know that you love him, and he still loves you. I'm happy for you both, as long as your happy." He says and strokes her cheek. "But in some selfish way, I'm glad I was the one to find you first, if only to have you to myself for a little bit like that time we ran away from the castle together." He rubs his thumb across the back of her knuckles and smiles at her. "When I lost you I was devastated. But now I have a second chance, so I'm going to savor every moment I have with you, even if you'll never love me back."

He leaned in to place a kiss on her lips then thought better of it and pressed his lips to her forehead instead.

"Get some rest Allura. I'll be right here when you wake up." He says and goes over to his other couch that he took out of his shack.

He sits down there and looks out the window, before looking back at Allura and smiling.

"How are you feeling Lance?" Pidge asks as they walk back to the house together.

Lance was feeling dizzy and really out of it, so Pidge took it upon herself to sling his arm around her shoulders and walk him back to the farmhouse so he could rest and she could take care of him.

"A little better I think." Lance says and rubs the spot on his cheek where his marking was. "The burning feeling in my face is gone but I still feel a bit lightheaded."

They climb up the steps to the front door and Pidge opens up the door and she takes small steps to be as quiet as possible. But Lance was still dizzy as quiznack so he tripped on a chair leg and fell over, dragging Pidge to the floor with them.

"Lance. You're crushing me." Pidge groaned from underneath Lance. "Get off!"

She squirms underneath him and uses all of her strength to push him up but then he just falls back down on top of her.

"Too dizzy to move." Lance grumbles and Pidge frowns at him.

"Lance I can see you smirking." She hisses. "Now let me get out from under you."

"Fine." He says.

Pidge lets out a sigh of relief then squeals when Lance wraps his arms around her waist and then rolls over so she's laying down on top of him.

"You're not under me anymore." He jokes.

Pidge huffed and pouted and Lance laughed at how cute she looked when she tried to be mad but just ended up looking adorable.

"Just get on the couch you idiot." She grumbles, while turning her face to hide her blushing.

Lance followed her orders and gripped the edge of the couch cushion and lifted himself up. Pidge helped him lay down and then left to get a warm washcloth to put on his forehead.

"Thanks pigeon." Lance says and smiles at her as she places the cloth on his forehead.

"You're welcome." She says silently and smiles back.

"You always take such good care of me." He admits to her and a blush creeps up her neck and spreads to her cheeks.

"I-I do?" She stutters and twirls a lock of her hair in-between her fingers.

"Yeah, you know aside from my family you're the only one that made time to visit me." Lance tells her.

"You know that's only because my mom wanted to help you grow some plants." Pidge adds with a smirk.

"Yeah but you watered them." Lance reminds her and Pidge's face turns bright red when he gently squeezes her hand. "In more ways than one."

"Lance..." Pidge mutters and he smiles at her. "What are you-"

"Santa?" They hear a tiny voice whisper from around the corner.

Their eyes widen and they turn to find Lance's niece and nephew peering around the corner of the doorway into the family room to see if the voices they heard were coming from Santa and his elves to leave them presents under the tree.

Pidge makes eye contact with them and they both gasp in fear. The redness immediately fades from Pidge's face and her lips curl into a smirk as she stares down the two kids.

"Shouldn't the two of you be in bed?" She asks them.

"Shouldn't you two be in bed?" The nephew boldly asks.

"What?" Pidge asks in a stern motherly tone.

It was one she had copied from her own mother. The kids gasped and then Lance chuckled and continued by telling them both something in Spanish. Both of the kids shrieked and ran back upstairs to their rooms.

"What did you tell them?" Pidge asks. "The only thing I could pick out of that was 'Santa Claus'."

"I just said that Santa won't come unless they're asleep." Lance says.

Both of them giggle and then Pidge remembers the task at hand as Lance squeezes her hand again.

"Pidge...I think the fact that my markings are gone has something to do with Allura. I think she might have come back to life." He says with a smile.

Pidge smiles too. Genuinely. She may still be harboring some jealousy towards the relationship that Allura got to have with Lance before her death. A relationship that Pidge had longed to have much longer than the late princess. But Allura was still a dear friend, and she would be overjoyed at the thought of her somehow coming back to them, even if it meant losing the chance of Lance possibly loving her back.

"We'll call the others tomorrow and tell them what happened." Pidge tells him and removes her hand from his and pats it. "For now, I think we should both get some rest."

"That sounds like a plan." Lance says and smiles before nodding off.

Allura's eyes softly fluttered open as the morning sun streamed through the window and onto her face. She blinked a few times and grunted, flexing her fingers and toes as she slowly regained consciousness. She had so many questions swimming through her head as her vision cleared and she began to make out her surroundings. In order to process everything she elected to close her eyes again and focus on her breathing and the sound of her heartbeat. Wait a minute...Breathing? Heartbeat?

She suddenly sat straight up, which was a mistake because as soon as she did that her head started pounding. She grunted and held her forehead in her hand.

She gasped when she felt the skin of her palm make contact with the skin of her forehead. She pulled her hand back and looked at it and her eyes widened as she flexed her fingers.

She flexed her fingers and toes and then threw back the covers and grabbed her feet. She had a small smile on her face and she patted her body down with her hands, moving her way up until she was touching her head and she let out a short laugh of amazement.

"Am I alive?" She asks herself.

Her train of thought was broken by the sound of soft snoring coming from the couch adjacent to the pull-out bed. Her eyes lit up when she saw Keith.

"Keith..." She breathed and smiled as she swung her legs over the side of the bed and slowly stood up.

She got into a standing position and moved her leg to take that first step towards her paladin but she ended up falling over and she shrieked as she fell down.

Keith only turned over onto his side and continued to sleep.

She groaned as she pushed herself up on her arms.

"Alright. I'm still very weak so I guess walking is a bit of a challenge." She mumbles to herself. "So crawling will have to do."

She awkwardly crawls over to the couch and pulls herself up to stand on her knees and her eyes widen and her stomach flips as she gasps when she sees Keith. He looked so different...he seemed older. That time when he came back from the Quantum Abyss two years older she could clearly tell that he had fully transitioned from boy to man. But now...he was a more mature man.

His worn black jeans and black combat boots hung off the opposite arm of the couch since the furniture was too small for him. He still wore the same belt that he always wore and the same dark-gray tee but he had a different leather jacket than the red one he used to have. This one was brown and grey and had weird patches on the shoulders leading down to his...biceps.

She licked her lips and tried not to stare. But she couldn't help but gawk a bit. His arms seemed much bigger and stronger than they once were, and this jacket framed them so nicely... Keith grunted and shifted, turning his face towards Allura and she felt her heart pounding.

Oh Ancients! Why was it that every time she was separated from this man, he comes back to her twice as handsome as he was before!

At first she was a bit disappointed to see that his bangs had been trimmed a bit. She quite liked how messy and long they were, it framed his face nicely and gave him a dark and mysterious look that she found incredibly sexy. But then she noticed how defined his jawline had become and the fact that his hair was now pulled back into a ponytail. Oh Ancients was she starting to get turned on by that...why was she starting to feel heat pool in her lower belly and an urge to grind against something-

Okay Allura, look away! Divert your attention elsewhere. She quickly told herself and moved her eyes away from his sexy hairdo.

He shifted in his sleep again and this time it made his shirt ride up. She bit her lip to muffle the squeak that escaped her lips when she saw a bit of his lower abdomen.

Were those...no they couldn't be. Could her scrawny, angsty teen turned alpha male possibly have developed...Abs?

Her womanhood shamelessly throbbed at the prospect. She didn't consider herself a shallow person by any means. After all she did date Lance. (Ba-dum tss. And yeah I know that was kinda mean, I think Lance is perfectly handsome as well but I just wanted to make that joke lol.) But muscles were something she'd always had a weakness for. So she couldn't help herself as she cautiously lifted up the hem of his shirt up and gasped when a perfect six-pack was revealed to her. Where did that come from?!

"A-Allura?" A gruff voice asks, breaking her train of thought.

Allura looks up and her face turns red when she sees Keith's beautiful obsidian eyes staring at her.

She yelped and immediately retracted her hand from his shirt.

"Keith! You're awake! I totally wasn't observing your perfectly toned abdomen in a sexually curious manner!" She blurts out as fast as she can.

"What?" Keith asks looking confused.

She let out a sigh of relief. Then Keith's sleepy mind registered to him that she was awake, and alive! She squealed again as she suddenly found herself scooped up in Keith's arms and he spun her around.

"Allura! Allura! Allura!" He chants then sets her down and cups her cheeks and her breath hitches from the warmth.

"Keith..." She sighs dreamily and smiles at him.

"Is it really you? Are you really alive? You're here, you came back to us?" He asks, searching her face, desperate for an answer.

"Yes. Yes Keith it's me!" Allura says happily and tears of joy streamed down Keith's face and he hugged her tight.

"Oh God it's a miracle!" He exclaims. "A Christmas miracle!"

"What's Christmas?" She asks.

"Earth Holliday." Keith explains. "But that's not important right now."

He pulls back to look at her face and he studies it, every feature he missed and yearned to see again all these years, was finally here again, with the woman he had been pining for for years! He affectionately stroked her pretty pink markings, and wiped her own tears away too in the process.

"All that matters is that you're here and you're alive." Keith says and pulls her in for another hug.

This time he holds her tight against his chest and runs his hand through her hair.

In her weak state, Allura closed her eyes and welcomed the warmth that his body radiated and pressed herself more into his chest. His perfectly sculpted- Okay Allura now is not the time to be fantasizing about his abs! She mentally scolds herself.

Keith pulled back from the hug and Allura gasped as she began to fall over once she lost his support but he quickly caught her in his arms.

"Whoa are you okay?" Keith asks, concern written on his face.

"I'm just a bit weak as all." Allura says and gives him a small smile. "I suppose I haven't recovered fully yet from being revived."

"Well then it sounds like your recovery might take some time." Keith says and Allura blushes as Keith scoops her up in his arms, bridal style.

He carried her over to the bed and gently set her down on it. It was then she realized something.

"Keith? Where did these clothes come from?" She asks and looks at her sweatpants that were too big for her and the t-shirt riddled with holes.

"Oh those are mine." Keith says. "I gave them to you after you blacked out in my arms."

"I blacked out?" Allura asks and Keith frowns.

"Yeah, you showed up at my front door glowing with quintessence and-"

Allura gasped in fear and grabbed at her clothes.

"Was I naked?" She asks.

"NO!" Keith shouts. "No no no no you were in your paladin armor. It's in the corner over there." He says and points to it.

Allura looked and saw it all neatly folded in a corner by the bedside table and let out a sigh of relief. Then she blushed again when she realized...

"But...how did I get in your clothes?" Allura asks and narrows her eyes at him.

Keith started to sweat and he gulped.

"Keith Kogane, if you stripped me naked last night while I was unconscious-"

"Not naked!" Keith says. "You have your panties on. And I didn't look at your boobs at all. Kosmo was the one who put your shirt on. I haven't seen anything you wouldn't want me too I swear."

She could tell he was being honest. Keith was always a perfect gentleman like that. She shrieked when the wolf suddenly appeared on the bed.

"What the quiznack!" Allura screams. "How did Kosmo get so big!?"

"I don't know ask Kosmo." Keith shrugs. "But it's super cool I can ride him now! Hey you can ride around on him until you can walk!"

"I'll pass thanks." Allura says and pulls her knees to her chest in an attempt to get away from the beast in front of her.

He lunged forward and started licking her face and she screamed.

"Looks like he missed you too!" Keith says happily.

"Get him off! Get him off!" She pushes at him but he doesn't budge.

Keith puts two fingers in mouth and whistles. The wolf picks his head up and patiently wags his tail as he waits for his master's command.

"Kosmo. Off." He commands and points to the floor and the wolf teleports beside him.

"Gross." Allura says and wipes her face with the collar of her shirt. "How did I even get here last night?"

"Wait do you not remember anything from last night?" Keith asks and sits on the side of the bed.

"No." Allura says. "The last thing I remember is Honerva and I preforming alchemy to restore all of creation and then...next thing I knew I woke up here. But clearly it's been a few years since then." She says and cups Keith's cheek in her palm.

"Yeah. It's been five years. We're all a bit older now." Keith says. "Do you mind?"

"I don't mind at all." Allura says. "To be honest I feel a bit older myself. Perhaps my revival somehow put a few years on me as well."

Allura looked down at her chest and then Keith blushed when he saw her grab her breasts and squeeze them. He mentally started cursing when he felt his pants starting to get tight and he prayed she wouldn't look down at his crotch since he didn't have a good way to hide it right now.

"Uh..." He starts, unsure of why she's doing this in front of him. "Allura what are you-"

"Do they seem bigger to you?" Allura asks and Keith clears his throat to mask the choking gasp that threatened to escape when she asked him that.

"I'm sorry what?" He asks, face red and eyes wide.

"My breasts. Do they seem larger to you than they were before?" She asks him professionally as if this were a standard question to ask your male friend.

"Well I uh...I uh..." He clears his throat again.

He made the mistake of looking down at her chest and saw she was slightly pushing them up more with her forearms and he bit his lip and fought back a curse as he felt himself get hard.

"I don't know. I never really paid much attention to your chest before." He said. You know, like a liar.

Allura smirked, knowing he was lying based on the massive tent in his pants. He wouldn't get that hard that fast unless he had thought about them before and he was probably praying that she wouldn't notice. But she did, and she didn't want to admit it but it sent a jolt of pleasure to her core and confidence in her body that just the mere thought and temptation of her breasts could get him erect so quickly.

"What a gentleman you are." She tells him sweetly. "But it's alright. I already have other evidence that suggests I've fully become an Altean adult by reaching fertile age-"

Keith choked on air.

"Fertile age?" He asks. "What the heck does that mean?"

"Well I think it's fairly obvious." Allura says. "I'm now of age where I can conceive a child. From what I understand from a brief conversation with Pidge back during the war, this stage happens a lot earlier for humans than for Alteans. But it's fairly obvious now to me that I am a fully adult Altean."

"How do you know that?" Keith asks her. "Because your boobs are bigger?"

"Uh...yes that's why." She says confidently.

It was the truth. A bigger bust was a product of reaching this stage in the female Altean life cycle. But she was too embarrassed to tell him the real reason she knew she had gotten older. She bit her lip to hide the soft gasp of arousal that would have escaped due to the sight of just...how...big the tent in his pants was, and what that must mean for what's inside-

"Yeah but why?" Keith asks. "Why would the lions revive you and age your body?"

"The lions revived me?" Allura asks, both thankful for the change in subject and out of curiosity for her miraculous return from the dead. "Keith did you see something else last night?"

"Well not last night but a few years ago." Keith explains. "About a year after you died we were celebrating Allura Day, a Holliday we made to celebrate you and all you did for us and the world. And that night the lions left. Blue led them away. We all knew without a doubt it had to be you somehow. And I could still sense Blue. I spent that entire year tracking her, hoping that if I found her, I could find you too."

Allura instinctively reached for his hand and squeezed it and he instantly squeezed it back.

"And one night I did. I found you, as a nebula. All the lions were flying towards you. Then they all roared and flew into the nebula, there was a blinding flash of light and you were gone. And so were the lions. And now, four years later you show up at my doorstep, glowing with quintessence." Keith finishes.

Both he and Allura were misty-eyed.

"I'm sorry I was gone for so long." Allura apologizes.

"Hey don't apologize." Keith says. "I don't care how long it took you to come back. You're here now and that's all that matters. Everyone's gonna be so happy to hear you're back."

"I can't wait to see them all again." Allura says and smiles.

Keith goes over to his desk and picks up a little device and brings it over to the bed. He pulls up a holo-screen from it and smiles.

"You can see them all now, when we tell them you're alive." Keith says.

He reaches down to pull up the screen but then Allura suddenly stops him.

"Keith wait!" She says and knocks his hand away from the device. "Maybe we shouldn't tell them I'm alive yet?"

"Why not?" Keith asks.

"Because I'm alive now but what if I don't stay alive..." Allura says softly and bites her lip.

Pidge and Lance were yawning from lack of sleep the night before as the children ripped open their presents. Lance's family members had each asked why Lance's markings had suddenly disappeared and he would simply tell them that he suspected it was because Allura was back but he would be talking to the other paladins later to be sure.

Pidge tapped her foot nervously as she studied Lance's face. He seemed adamant about the fact that Allura was alive. He didn't want to accept any other possibility for what happened last night. She knew, because she tried.

But despite how confident he sounded that Allura had risen from the dead. Science told her that was most likely impossible. But she still wanted to have hope that she would see the princess again. Mostly for Lance's sake. Her return would surely cure his hermit-like nature he's adopted since her death. He seemed just as nervous as she was about this as they sat at the kitchen table together, waiting for a call from one of the paladins.

Finally the holo-screen popped up and there were the other paladins on their screen.

"Hey! Finally Lance and Pidge join the party! I was wondering why Pidge was late. I guess it's because she's spending Christmas with you this year. Even Shiro answered and he's in the car with his son and husband on their way to a friend's house." Hunk says and laughs. "Why are you always the last one to answer a call Lance?"

"Because I live on a planet that's light years away from yours so it takes awhile for the signal to travel!" Lance exclaims and everyone laughs at his outburst while he pouts and Pidge pats his shoulder.

Even Allura who was laughing behind the holo-screen and tearing up at the sight of everyone's faces. For her they had only been apart for a few hours but now seeing all of the paladins talk with each other, seeing how much older they all are, and Shiro married and with an adopted Altean son. It really has been years and they've all moved on from her. Except for poor, sweet Lance.

"Okay guys, I'm glad to hear everyone's having a Merry Christmas but I think it's time we talk about the reason we're all here. Allura's alive." Lance says.

"Whoa! She's alive!" Hunk says and his eyes widened. "Oh my gosh that's amazing! Where is she?"

"I don't know." He says sadly.

Allura bites her lip and looks at him longingly as he sighs and looks out the window.

"But my markings are gone." Lance says and Allura's eyes widen. "I'm like 99% sure those things were somehow connected to Allura's life-force. That's why they glowed the last time we saw the lions." Lance says and Allura nods yes to Keith from the other side of the screen.

"That makes sense." Shiro says and the others nod in agreement.

"So if the markings are gone, then that must mean she's been revived and her life-force has been returned to her!" Lance exclaims. "That's why the markings don't need to be on me anymore so I was just a placeholder until she came back. You guys all felt that weird surge last night right?"

"Yeah." Everyone says.

"All of the Balmeras felt it actually. Shay and I are spending Christmas together on hers with our families and last night we both felt this weird energy surge that went through the Balmera and me and all the other Balmerans felt it too. We even got calls from the other Balmeras saying that they felt it too." Hunk says.

"Wait Shiro, Keith did you guys feel it on Earth? Lance and I both felt it here on Altea." Pidge says.

"I did." Shiro says. "Woke me up in the middle of the night and then I could barely get back to sleep." Shiro yawned and his husband playfully pinched his cheek as he drove the hover car.

"I'm not sleepy!" Adam calls from the back seat.

Everyone except Lance goes "Awwww!"

"Everyone focus!" Lance exclaims. "Do you know what this means! Allura could be out there somewhere floating in space or being chased by yalmors and we need to go save her!"

"Lance, look we don't even know if she's alive." Keith says.

"She is!" Lance argues. "She has to be! I know it in my heart!"

Allura's eyes waters and she smiled softly at Lance's image on the screen and placed her hand over her heart. It was rather sweet how much faith he had in her.

"That surge was Allura. I could feel it. That was her quintessence." Lance says. "I know because it was the same thing I felt when she revived me in Red that one time during the war-"

"Wait a minute REVIVED?!" Pidge exclaims. "As in, for a moment, you were DEAD?!" She exclaims and slams her hand on the table and frowns at him.

"Uh...no." He answers softly and gives her his best innocent face and the mice form a halo over his head.

Pidge was still giving him the evil eye as he turned back to the others and they could all sense the danger that Lance was in. Good thing Lance had longer legs than Pidge. He'd easily be able to out-run her as soon as this call was over.

"You know Lance I hate to be a downer but...what if the fact that her life-force is gone means that she's just gone." Keith suggests.

"Keith...what are you talking about?" Lance asks and frowns.

"Look dude, I want Allura to come back as much as any of us but what if the fact that the markings are gone means that she's just gone...what if that surge was her life-force leaving our universe instead?" Keith says.

Lance just stares at him and blinks a few times before gripping the table and frowning at Keith.

"Keith, why the quizna-"

"Okay this is not kid appropriate I am gonna sign off." Shiro says and quickly leaves the call.

"Why would you even suggest something as awful as that!" Lance exclaims.

"I'm not saying I like the idea but I'm just trying to be realistic here." Keith says.

"Realistic?" Lance exclaims. "More like really rude and disrespectful! I wonder if Allura can hear you right now. I bet she hates you for what you're suggesting!"

Keith felt Allura's hand reach forward and squeeze his on the bed. She gave him a small smile and he smiled back.

"I highly doubt that Lance." Keith says.

"Dude are you smiling now?" Lance asks. "What the hell!? What's wrong with you!"

"Lance just calm down." Pidge urges and takes his hands in hers.

"Pidge he's insulting Allura." Lance says.

"No he's not. He's just proposing a different theory. One that...I think could be equally likely." She admits.

The betrayed and hurt expression that came onto Lance's face after that broke her heart.

"Pidge you're my best friend." Lance says. "I thought I could rely on you."

"Lance I-" Pidge starts but he cuts her off.

"Look, it's pretty clear that I'm the only one that wants to see Allura alive again-" Lance rants.

"Whoa hey that is not true!" Hunk says. "I'd trade anything to see her alive again."

"Me too." Keith says and squeezes her hand.

"Me three." Pidge says.

"But we know that it's highly unlikely that's going to happen." Pidge says. "We're just trying to think rationally here so we don't go crazy and waste our lives trying to find ways to bring her back that won't work."

"Wait is that what you think I've been doing since the war ended?" Lance asked in an offended tone. "You think I've been going crazy?!"

"Well...I mean..." Pidge says nervously.

"I can't believe you right now." Lance says and stands up from the table.

"Lance!" Pidge calls after him. "Lance wait!"

She ends the call and gets up to run after him.

Keith and Hunk awkwardly stared at each other before ending the call and wishing each other a Merry Christmas once more before signing off.

Keith looked at Allura with a concerned expression and she gave him a tight-lipped smile and then her bottom lip wobbled and she covered her hands over her eyes as she started to weep. She gasped when almost instantly after her first sob left her mouth, Keith's arms were around her and he pulled her into the warmth of his chest as he soothingly carded his hand through her hair and rubbed her back. And suddenly, she started to feel better, as if Keith knew exactly what she needed.

"I miss them Keith." She mutters into his chest. "And they miss me so much. I want to tell them that I'm back but I'm scared that if it's only for a short while or I was revived for some purpose that'll take me away from you all again that it'll only break their hearts more if they lose me twice."

"You're not gonna get taken away from us again." Keith says and she sniffles and pulls back to look at him.

"How do you know?" She asks him.

"To be honest, I don't. There is a chance you could...leave again so it was smart not to tell the others, at least until your condition's improved. I mean you're weak now but there is a chance you could either get stronger or worse like you said..." He answers honestly. "But I know that the lions must have revived you for a reason. I doubt you'd get taken away from us again if they sacrificed themselves to bring you back. But if something even dares to try to take you away again, I'm not gonna let it take you without a fight."

Allura's crystal blue eyes began to sparkle and they widened as her heart pounded from Keith's words and she felt a soft blush forming on her cheeks. She didn't recall ever seeing Keith like this. His features so stoic and his eyes so fierce. It made her chest feel warm. She had forgotten just how attractive Keith was, especially when he was confident.

"I already lost you once. I should have fought harder to make you stay. I should have agreed with Lance and tried to find another way." He gulps and winces as he remembers their last goodbye and she grips his shirt in her fists. "But I didn't. I let you go and I regret it every day. But now you're back, and I'm not gonna let you go that easy again. You can hide out here as long as you need, I'll take care of you Allura," Her breath hitches as he cups her cheek "for as long as necessary until you're healthy enough to go back to Altea and take your rightful place as Queen...and be with Lance." He adds softly.

"Oh Keith..." Allura whispered.

They looked down at each other's lips and Allura licked hers as she noticed how soft and inviting Keith's lips looked. He wet his and thought the same about Allura's. They both looked into each other's eyes again and began to close them and lean in when suddenly they heard someone knocking on the door and they jumped apart as Kosmo started barking.

"Hey Keith! Surprise! It's me Shiro, Curtis and Adam! Merry Christmas!" Shiro says.

Allura and Keith looked back at each other in fear.

"Quiznack!" They both whisper-shouted to each other.


	3. Good Holliday Food

"Keith put me down!" Allura hissed and struggled in Keith's grip as he held her in a fireman's carry over his shoulder and discreetly walked her into the kitchen.

"Shush! You don't want them to hear you!" Keith whispers to her. "Look you just have to hide in the pantry for a few minutes-"

"I am a Princess! I will not allow you to just shove me into a food storage closet like a bag of flour!" She hisses back at him and he grunts when she kicks him in the thigh.

He sucked in a breath and kept walking.

"Without your Altean strength, it's not like you can really fight me back." Keith reminds her with a chuckle. "That little kick only slowed me down a tick."

Allura growls and squirms in his grip more as he opens up the pantry door then grabs her waist with his hands and lifts her off of his shoulder and places her onto the floor.

She crossed her arms and frowned and pouted at him.

"Stay." He says and holds his hand out at her.

She looked even angrier at him after that and he laughed and shut the pantry door.

"I won't keep you in there for too long I promise." He tells her before rushing to the front door and opening it.

"Hey Shiro! Curtis! Adam-Whoa!" He says as the toddler jumps on his leg.

"Uncle Keef!" He says affectionately while Curtis and Shiro hug Keith and they all wish each other Merry Christmas.

"So I'm the friend you guys were on your way to visit on that video chat." Keith says and Shiro laughs.

"Yeah I thought it might be nice to surprise you so here we are! Haha!" Shiro says and grabs Keith's shoulder and gives it a shake.

"What took you so long to come to the door?" Curtis asks.

"Oh I was asleep and then Kosmo was barking and I was trying to find one of his toys to calm him down, pets can be a nuisance sometimes." Keith says.

Kosmo pads up next to Keith and whines a bit and lowers his head.

"He's so big...I'm amazed he can fit in this house." Curtis says.

"Yeah well I increased the square-footage of the house so he'd have more room to walk around and I had to raise the ceiling height since he's basically the same size as me now, and I turned my old shack into his own little wolf-house but he prefers to be in here with me." Keith says and laughs as Kosmo nuzzles against his chest.

"Okay, well we won't stay too long because we're going up to visit my folks but Shiro and I wanted to come down and give you your Christmas present." Curtis says and hands Keith an envelope.

"Oh thanks." Keith says and begins to open it.

"No!" Adam tells him and pulls on his pant-leg. "Don't open it yet! My daddy's said that you can only open it after they've left."

Keith sighed and looked up at Shiro and his husband.

"It's money isn't it?" He asks.

"What?" They both ask in a high-pitched voice that told Keith they were lying. "No."

"Guys, you're both horrible liars and the envelope is flat. I know it's a check." Keith says. "And I don't want to take money from you guys."

"Keith it's a gift." Shiro insists. "You've been doing humanitarian work for five years now, that's not giving you much of an income to be able to build this house so I thought I'd give you a little seed money that's all."

Keith looked at the envelope then back at Shiro and held it out to him again and Shiro rolled his eyes and passed the envelope back to Keith.

"If you don't take this amount then we'll just give you more next year." He threatens and Keith slowly pulls the envelope back to his chest and slides it into his jacket pocket.

"Humanitarian work..." Allura mumbled to herself as she pressed her ear against the door and listened in on the conversation. "That is so Keith."

She gasped when she heard some jiggling on the doorknob and scrambled backwards as quick as she could, hoping to find someplace to hide. But instead, she was spotted by a small Altean toddler.

Adam stared at her and blinked a few times. She stared back and wondered what to do. Adam was about to open his mouth and alert his parents of her presence and so she quickly grabbed the Altean toddler and covered his mouth and dragged him into the pantry with her.

He grunted and struggled in her grip but she held onto him and shushed him.

"Shh...Shh..." She soothes and hugs him. She pulls back her hair and shows him her Altean marking. "It's okay." She tells him. "I'm like you."

Adam stopped struggling and looked at her in awe.

"You're Altean?" He asks.

She nods then puts her finger up to her lips.

"Yes. But I'm a secret." She tells Adam. "So don't tell anyone that I'm here okay?" She asks and Adam nods.

"You've got it." He whispers back.

He tilts his head and looks at her curiously.

"Are you Keith's girlfriend?" He asks her.

Allura's face turned bright red and she gasped and covered her mouth to keep herself from screaming in surprise.

"Oh Ancients no!" She whispers to the toddler. "I am a girl. And he is my very good friend, and I think he's very attractive but I certainly don't think of him in a romantic way."

"Oh okay, I get it." Adam whispers.

"Does Keith have a girlfriend?" She asks curiously after a few ticks of silence.

"Not that I know of." Adam says and shrugs. "But my daddy's keep trying to set Keith up with some of their friends for awhile now."

"Oh have they now?" Allura asks and arches an eyebrow.

She giggled at the thought of Shiro forcing Keith to go on double dates with him and his husband.

"Have they found someone Keith likes?" Allura asks.

Adam laughs before answering.

"No! Uncle Keef always turns them down at the end of the night." Adam says.

"Oh that's too bad." Allura says and pouts.

She felt sorry for Keith. He should have someone to love. He was so selfless and kind. He truly did have greatness in his heart. Surely there must be someone out there worthy of giving that heart to.

"Well I hope he finds someone soon. Who knows, perhaps the person he'll spend the rest of his life with is living right under his nose." Allura says and swipes her finger against Adam's nose, making the toddler giggle. "Now go back outside to your daddies before they start looking for you."

"Okay." Adam whispers and runs outside and hugs Curtis's leg as he and Shiro say their goodbyes to Keith and leave.

As soon as Keith sees them drive off he goes to get Allura. He opens the door.

"See, now that wasn't so bad was-" He asks then stops and his eyes widen when he sees what's going on in the pantry.

There were three opened family size chip bags, all completely empty and Allura was now halfway through a pretzel one and she looked up at him, her mouth half-full of pretzels and his jaw dropped.

"Uh...Are you hungry?" He asks her.

"What does it look like?" She asks rhetorically after swallowing a mouthful of pretzels. "I've just come back from the grave Keith! I'm starving!"

"Okay then. Maybe I should just leave you in here to feast then." He teases and leans against the doorframe.

She frowns at him and crosses her arms as he smirks at her.

"Just bring me back to bed." She grumbles. "And I'm taking these with me." She says and grabs a bag of cheese doodles and some more chip bags.

—

Pidge spent all day trying to talk to Lance but he was clearly avoiding her. Whenever she spotted him somewhere he would leave the second he saw her coming. She was relieved when she saw him in the juniberry field because she thought he couldn't avoid her out there.

"Lance!" She called to him as she ran up to him in the field and waved to him.

He started walking towards her and she smiled, relieved that he was at least willing to talk to her now after what happened this morning but as he came up to her and she opened her mouth to speak he brushed past her.

"I just heard mom calling me." Lance says coldly. "See ya later Pidge."

No one called for him. Pidge's eyes began to water and she fell to her knees in the field and began to cry.

"Hey." Pidge hears Veronica say to her.

The small tawny-haired woman turns to see her crush's sister kneel down next to her and place a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"What are you doing crying out here on Christmas morning?" Veronica asks her.

"You were eavesdropping on our call weren't you?" Pidge asks.

"Of course I was." Veronica says. "So...Lancey Lance is avoiding you because you don't agree with him?"

Pidge nods and Veronica rolls her eyes and scoffs.

"Ugh. Men." She says in disgust.

"I know." Pidge says. "And I agree with you but, I think I'm also in the wrong here. I mean, he loved Allura. He still loves her. So much that he's slowly starting to lose himself. And I can't stand to see him slowly slip away into this grieving hermit that'll never move on and I snapped! I just wish he would see some sense. For his own sake."

"You're just as worried as the rest of us are." Veronica says. "But you know what makes you different?"

"I'm not a member of your family." Pidge says.

"No." Veronica says. "You're the only person that Lance'll open up to. You know, whenever you come around to visit are at least 95% of the times I've seen him genuinely happy. The rest of the time he's either holed up in his room texting you at 3 am or he's wandering through the fields moping about Allura. You guys have been best friends forever. He cares about you so much more than you know. Just give him some time to cool off. He'll come to his senses eventually and forgive you."

"Thanks Veronica." Pidge says. "I think what Lance needs most of all is closure. And the weird energy anomle that happened last night only made him ask more questions and-wait that's it! Thank you so much for talking to me Veronica!" Pidge exclaims before running off.

"Glad I could help!" Veronica calls after her. "Lance better marry that girl. We need at least one genius in this family."

—

"Stop laughing!" Allura scolded and wriggled on the ground, tied up by tinsel.

"How the hell did this happen?" Keith asks.

"Well, I saw something sparkly and...things just sort of spiraled from that point on." Allura explains.

Keith ran his hand over his face and then smirked, shook his head and laughed again.

"Alright well there's only one way to get you out of this." He says and holds up his knife.

"No!" Allura yells. "Get that thing away from me!"

She crawled on the ground like an inchworm and Keith couldn't help but smile from how cute she was. Since her back was to him he quickly cut her loose and she let out a sigh of relief that it was only him there and not someone else.

"Come on, now let's go have Christmas dinner." He says.

At the mention of food Allura held out her arms and made grabby hands at Keith so he could carry her into the kitchen aera. She actually drools when she smells the aroma.

"All of this food looks and smells so divine. What is it?" She asks Keith eagerly as he sat her down on a chair.

"This is called Chinese food. Feel free to dig in-" Keith is cut off by a hungry Allura diving for the rice carton.

He smiled and shook his head. When he turned around she had already finished eating the rice, straight from the carton and now she was assaulting the beef lo mein.

"Are you going to save something for me?" Keith asks.

"I don't know. I'm too hungry to think straight right now." She says with her mouth half-full and she slurps up the noodles and stabs a big piece of beef with her fork.

Keith found the container of dumplings and sat down to eat them. But as soon as he opened the lid, Allura dropped her fork and stared at the dumplings with her pupils dilated and they sparkled as she eyed the food.

Keith sighed and pushed the container towards her and she squealed in happiness and began to eat the food. He shook his head and laughed as he watched her stuff her face with Chinese take out. But then his own stomach grumbled. Originally he had ordered enough food for both of them but Allura had an appetite that could clean out a whole village of their food supply right now. So he would give her all of the take out and then he would go and make his own Asian food.

He got up and walked over to the pantry and opened the door. He took a small wooden box down from the shelf and blew the dust off of it before opening the lid and sifting through the yellowing index cards inside.

He pulled one out  
and put the box back on the shelf before gathering the spice, oil, vegetables and noodles that he needed.

Allura had finished the lo mein and had half a dumpling in her mouth when she heard the stove turn on and she turned to look in that direction and saw Keith pouring oil onto a pan and then checked the water to see if it was boiling so he could put the noodles in yet.

Allura swallowed her dumpling.

"Are you cooking?" Allura asks.

"Yeah." Keith answers back and reads the card to see which vegetables go in the pan.

He puts them in and the pan sizzles as they start to cook.

Allura craned her neck to try and see what Keith was doing. But alas she could not.

"Keith. Can I come over there and watch you cook?" She asks.

Keith turns around and sees her smiling and innocently batting her eyelashes at him so he agrees and carries her over to the countertop next to the stove and sits her down there so she has a perfect view of him cooking.

She noticed the yellowing card and picked it up and frowned.

"This doesn't look like the English writing I'm used to seeing. What do these strange symbols mean?" She asks.

"That's because it's not English." Keith says. "It's Korean."

"Korean?" Allura asks. "Is that a different country like Cuba?"

"Well it is another country but it's nothing like Cuba." Keith explains. "My grandmother was from South Korea. She came to live here in the states when she met my grandfather in Texas."

He gently plucks the card from her hand and holds it in front of him to properly display it.

"This is one of her recipes for a dish called Japache." Keith says and places the card back down.

"How do you have her recipes?" Allura asks.

"After my pop died I lived with her and my grandfather for two years before going into the system." Keith says.

"I bet it was nice to spend some time with them." Allura says. "What were some of the things you would talk about with them?"

"Well there wasn't much talking, with a language barrier and all." Keith explains.

"She didn't speak English?" Allura asks.

"Not really. According to my pop she used to be able to speak English but...by the time I went to live with them she developed some sort of degenerative brain disease, and since English was her second language, it got harder for her to speak it, even though she could still understand it. So she mostly spoke only Korean until she died." Keith explained.

"Oh Keith I'm so sorry." Allura apologized and placed her hand on his forearm.

His arm stilled and a small blush formed on his cheeks from her touch.

"It's alright." He says and gently nudges her hand off of his arm and smiled at her. "It was deca-pheobs ago."

Allura smiled back and thought of a different question to ask.

"So do you speak Korean fluently, like Lance speaks both English and Spanish?" She asks.

"Oh hell no." Keith says with a short laugh that makes Allura giggle softly. "I mean, spending those two years with my grandmother I picked up on a lot of words and phrases to hold a conversation with her at least but I haven't really spoken it since then. I've forgotten a lot of it to be honest. But I still know enough to read my grandma's recipes and that's all I really need to know."

"So you don't remember how to speak it?" Allura asks.

"Well, uh..." Keith stops pushing the vegetables around and thinks for a minute while adding the noodles to the boiling water. "I remember a few words. I could probably still say some things in Korean."

"Can I hear you say one of those things?" Allura asks.

Keith arches an eyebrow.

"You want me to speak Korean to you?" He asks and turns to her, a small smirk on his face.

"Yes." Allura says. "Does it sound similar to Spanish?"

"Oh it's very different princess." Keith tells her and shakes his head.

"How is it different? I'm curious. Tell me something in Korean." She requests again.

He stayed silent and pushed the vegetables around the pan.

"Please." Allura begged.

Keith made the mistake of looking at her face and saw her flashing him those gorgeous baby blues. He sighed and then his chest warmed when he thought of something to tell her. He stopped stirring the vegetables and Allura's brow furrowed as Keith came to stand in front of her. He placed both hands on either side of her on the counter and Allura's breath hitched from the close proximity, and the brightness in his gaze as he looked into her crystal blue eyes with his beautiful dark ones.

"Allura, naneun neoleul salanghago, naneun hangsang geuleohge hal geos-ida. yeong-wonhi (I love you, and I always will. Forever)." Keith says as he looks into her eyes.

Allura couldn't help the smile that crept up on her face and the blush that formed on her cheeks from hearing Keith speak in a different language. Today she had learned something new about someone she once thought there wasn't much else to know about. Or at least, she thought she'd never get out of him anyway. But now here she was, living in his home with him and learning about his family. And hearing him speak in a language she had never heard before... it piqued her curiosity and made a shiver go down her spine.

"What does that mean?" She asks eagerly.

Keith smiled at how adorable she was, looking at him all wide-eyed and swinging her legs as she sat on the kitchen counter.

"It's a secret." He tells her and winks.

She pouts.

"That's no fair! I want to learn things. Tell me what it means, please!" She begs.

"Not gonna happen." Keith says and adds some more oil to the pan. "It probably didn't even come out right anyway. I always butcher the pronunciation."

"Well fine then. I'll just have to learn Korean and then I'll find out what rude thing you said to me and smack you upside the head!" She threatens and Keith laughs.

"Suit yourself." He says.

—

Pidge had half an empanada in her mouth as she wandered around the front lawn of the farmhouse. Christmas dinner was a cook out with all of the extended family that came that afternoon to celebrate. There were at least 50 people at this house now. She had expected Lance to introduce her to everyone and everyone to her but...he was nowhere to be found. Still off sulking somewhere probably.

Truth be told she would have been more upset had she not been eating the most delicious empanada ever. Food and presents always had been her favorite part of the Hollidays. Wait! That was it! Food!

She turned around and headed back towards the banquet table, dodging relatives that were trying to talk to the small white girl that they didn't recognize because instead of doing his job of introducing her to his family, Lance was stuffing his face with garlic knots.

"I knew I'd find you here." Pidge says and smiles as she approaches Lance.

This time he didn't leave or try to avoid her.

"What do you want?" Lance asks and takes another bite of his garlic knot before washing it down with a glass of red wine.

"You." Pidge says and Lance nearly chokes.

"Say what now?" Lance asks and does a double take.

"No!" Pidge exclaims as her face turns red. "Not like that! I mean I want you to help me with something."

"Really? The genius girl needs my help with something?" Lance asks and arches an eyebrow.

"Well I technically don't but I figured you'd still want to help anyway because it has to do with finding Allura." Pidge says and Lance's expression goes from shocked to serious.

"Chip is here with us. He sensed the anomaly too. He has a program that can help him analyze stuff like that. We can track the quintessence surge back to it's source, meaning we could find where Allura is if she was revived." Pidge explains.

Lance set down his glass and scooped up Pidge into a big hug. She smiled and hugged him back as he lifted her off the ground.

"Thank you so much pigeon." Lance says as tears prick the corners of his eyes.

"You're welcome." Pidge says and smiles.

"I'm sorry I was avoiding you today. That was a jerk thing to do." He says. "I know that you've only ever tried to help me. You're my best friend and I was seriously in the wrong. How can I make it up to you?"

"You could pour me a glass of that wine." Pidge suggests with a small smile.

"Are you even old enough to drink?" Lance asks teasingly.

"You know I am." Pidge replies and scoffs.

"I know but your height says otherwise." Lance teases. "Ow!" Lance exclaims as he takes a blow to the gut from Pidge.

"Then pick on someone your own size." Pidge says and smirks.

Lance gave her the most beautiful smile he'd ever seen and a laugh just as genuine to match and she couldn't help but smile back.


	4. The Reasons Why

Keith came out of the bathroom, changed in his grey sweatpants and red t-shirt to find Allura bent over, holding her head as she sat with a plate of gingerbread cookies on the bed.

"Allura! He exclaims and goes over to her.

He knelt down by her knees and tried to look at her face.

"Keith?" She asks hoarsely and frowns.

Her marks were glowing and there were little sparkles of quintessence coming off of them. She reaches out and touches his scar.

"Where did this come from?" She asks.

His eyes widen in fear and his heart races.

"Allura? Don't you remember?" He asks.

"No. And where are we? This doesn't look like the castle? And what happened to your hair?" She asks and brushes his bangs with her fingers. "I mean I always thought it was a little ridiculous but this is just-"

"Hey." Keith says in an offended tone.

Suddenly she sat up straight and the sparkles started flowing back into her marks. Once they were all in she closed her eyes and they glowed brightly then went back to their pink color. She opened her eyes. They were normal.

"Keith?" Allura asks. "What happened? I think I blacked out for a second."

"You lost your memory." Keith says and Allura's eyes widen. "You forgot where my scar came from and you thought I looked different, like you only remembered what I looked like from back on the Castle ship."

"That would explain it..." Allura says and touches her marking.

"Explain what?" Keith asks.

"It's both good and bad." Allura says and smiles. "The good thing is that if my quintessence is being re-attracted to my body and not away from it, then that's a guarantee that I'm here to stay. I'll live."

Tears of happiness roll down Keith's cheeks and he and Allura hug each other tightly.

"Oh thank God." Keith says and buries his face in her hair. "I was so worried I was gonna lose you again." He says and pulls back from her and cups her face.

"You won't." She says.

Then her smile slowly fades and her gaze travels downward.

"Unless...the bad." She starts. "I'm extremely glad we chose not to tell the others of my return. That little spell returned some of my knowledge of alchemy that I learned from Oriande."

She looks into his eyes.

"Out of all of the paladins and our friends aside from you, the two people I'm closest to, Coran and Lance, cannot know I'm alive, or else I could die." Allura says.

"Why?" Keith asks.

"Because I had a quintessence link with both of them." Allura explains. "My quintessence is the same as my father's. Quintessence signatures are genetic. You get a mix of both from your parents. My father's quintessence is what kept Coran, the mice and I alive in the pods for 10,000 years in the castle. In that time, our signatures formed a link. My quintessence is currently unstable. It's flowing in and out of me and I can't control the fluctuation. It's like a magnet. It's attracted to me so it will stay in my body or relatively close but if Coran gets within a certain range-"

"He'll suck the quintessence right out of you." Keith finishes, figuring it out.

Allura nodded.

"And you'll die?" He asks.

She nodded.

"Most likely." She says. "The mice aren't large enough or powerful enough to kill me that way but it would be painful and inconvenient, so I should avoid them for the time being as well."

Keith nodded in agreement.

"And since you gave Lance those markings..." Keith says.

Allura bites her bottom lip and her eyes water.

"The same thing that would happen with Coran would happen if you got near him too." Keith says and a tear rolls down his cheek.

She gives him a small smile.

"So I'm alive. But being near the people I love will kill me." She says and sniffles.

Keith hugged her as she sobbed into his chest. His heart ached for her. She was alive again, but at what cost?

"Allura I'm so sorry." He says. "I wish there was something I could do."

"Actually, you already are." She says and pulls back and smiles at him.

"I am?" He asks, confused.

She smiles and nods but he still doesn't get the message.

"By letting you stay here with me?" He asks.

"You're getting warmer." Allura says then sighs. "I guess it was silly of me to expect you to know this since you don't have the same knowledge as me but you have a special power!"

"I do?" Keith asks.

"Yes. You mentioned you could sense the Blue Lion, and that you tracked it to try to find me?" Allura inquires.

"Yeah but I just thought that was because I was a paladin." Keith says.

"No. If that was the case the others would have been able to track Blue." Allura says. "But you're special, you have a power that is somehow opposite but also compatible with mine. So as my quintessence is threatening to escape my body and tear it apart, the force from your aura is holding it together and keeping me from dying."

"Whoa." Keith says and looks at his hands.

"Oddly enough I sensed something similar but different in Lotor. I think that's why I was attracted to him..." She theorizes and Keith blushes. "But the difference with you is that my quintessence is somehow both attracted and stabilized by yours."

"So there must be something more behind my sensitivity then just sensing Lions and battling druids." Keith says. "It's like we're somehow connected, like I was meant to be here for you when you came back..."

"Exactly!" Allura exclaims excitedly. "You are more powerful than you think. So it may take some time but if I stay here with you, I should fully regain my capabilities and get back to normal so I can be with Coran, Lance and my mice again!"

"Sounds like a plan." Keith says and they hug again.

"And thankfully out of everyone on the team, you're the one who's best at keeping huge secrets like this. The rest, aside from Shiro wouldn't be able to keep my return a secret from Lance or Coran for as long as I'll need to recover." Allura explains. "I really did hit the jackpot by ending up here with you didn't I?"

"Allura...it's me. The loner who's only into mullets, knives and space wolves and is living in half a house." He says and gestures to the hole in the ceiling that was covered by a tarp at the top of the stairs.

"I wouldn't say you're that lucky." Keith stresses.

Allura laughed again.

"Oh Keith don't talk yourself down. This is a cozy little home and you're a dear friend." She says. "And without you I wouldn't be alive."

"Well there's that small little factor I guess." He says and smiles. "And I guess I do have some luck too since I'm the only one that gets to know you're alive for awhile."

"Yes you are." Allura smiles.

But she was lying. Because she met a toddler today. And toddlers love to talk...

—

"I made a new friend today!" Adam says.

Shiro, Curtis and little Adam had just gotten home from Curtis's parents house. Shiro had asked his son to tell him about the fun things he did today.

"Oh really?" Curtis asks and kneels down beside his son. "Who's your new friend?"

"Uncle Keef's secret girlfriend." Adam said casually.

Curtis and Shiro's eyes widened and they stared blushing.

"His secret what?" Shiro asks.

"His girlfriend." Adam says. "She was hiding in the pantry. She was really pretty! But she told me not to tell anyone about her so I won't say more than that."

"Uh...wow okay. Was she nice?" Shiro asks.

"Yeah!" Adam says. "But she was funny too! Wearing Uncle Keef's pajamas!" He says and laughs.

Curtis covered his mouth and waved his hand up and down as he silently screamed. Shiro just stared off into space until his jaw dropped and then he covered his mouth.

"Ooo daddy's show is on TV now!" Adam says and runs to the living room to watch Voltron.

"Holy shit!" Shiro whisper shouts once Adam was out of earshot. "Keith has a girlfriend!"

"Shiro it's more than that!" Curtis emphasized. "Keith fucked someone!"

"You think they did?" Shiro asks.

"Adam said she was wearing his clothes! That means he's seen definitely seen her without them. He also had her hiding in the pantry when we came over, meaning he's probably embarrassed for us see her and ask questions, and if I know anything about couples and sex, that means they fucked!" Curtis says and Shiro covers his mouth to muffle a scream of surprise and Curtis holds his husband's shoulders to keep him from falling over in shock.

"Holy shit Keith got laid!" Shiro whisper shouts. "And it's Keith so he must be madly in love with her if they slept together, Keith does not take romance lightly."

"If he's so serious about her then why wouldn't he want us to meet her?" Curtis asks.

"I don't know." Shiro says. "But we definitely need to find out. We've gotta know who this girl is."

"Already on it." Curtis says and pulls out his phone. "I'm contacting all the people at the Garrison I know who love to gossip, someone's gotta know something. Wait a minute...oh my God, how could I have been so dumb!"

"What? What did you do?" Shiro asks.

"I completely forgot! It's so obvious! The only reason why Keith wouldn't want us to know he's in a relationship is because he'd be embarrassed, and he'd be embarrassed because that person is someone we know that we might not approve of, or someone we know might not like! Whoever he's dating would cause huge drama if we found out who it was!" Curtis says.

Shiro passionately kissed his husband.

"I married a genius." Shiro praises him.

"And I married the most perfect man in the world." Curtis says and they kiss again.

"Okay so this narrows down the list to girls that we know, and Keith knows well enough to want to sleep with that someone would be mad if they found out." Shiro says. "God I never thought I'd say that." He chuckles. "There's Acxa and Romelle but dating either of them wouldn't really cause a stir or give reason for him to hide it because they're both single and no one's really that protective over them-"

Curtis gasped.

"Wait, protective!" He exclaimed. "I know who it is!"

"Who is it?" Shiro asks eagerly.

Curtis smirked and leaned in to whisper in his husband's ear.

"I think Lance would be none to pleased to know that Keith slept with his sister Veronica."

—

"You couldn't let me have just one cookie?" Keith asks her.

Allura looked at him guiltily as she slowly crunched the gingerbread cookie and held the last one in her hand.

Suddenly Kosmo appeared in the kitchen and ate the cookie right out of her hand.

"That filthy mutt!" Allura exclaims and frowns at Kosmo.

Then she pulled her knees into her chest and rested her chin on them and pouted.

"Kosmo." Keith says sternly. "That was rude."

Kosmo whined and rested his head on his paws with his ears down.

"Don't give me that look, now tell Allura you're sorry." Keith insists.

The large wolf padded over to her and gave her a huge lick on her cheek which made her squeal in disgust and furiously wipe her cheek with her shirt.

"Ew! Ew! Ew!" She exclaims and shudders. "Don't you dare ever do that again!" She threatens the wolf.

"Allura that just means he likes you." Keith laughs.

"Well I think if he did like me he'd keep his slobber to himself." Allura huffs and cleans the last of the saliva from her cheek. "I'm starting to feel a bit tired. Perhaps now is a good time to go to bed?"

"I agree." Keith says and smiles.

He pulls back the covers for Allura to get under them.

"You can take the bed." Keith says. "I washed the sheets so it's nice and clean."

"Thank you." Allura says. "You didn't have to go to all of this trouble for me though. I'd be perfectly fine with sleeping on the couch."

"Nonsense." Keith says and pulls back the covers for her. "You're a princess and you've just been resurrected. You need to be well rested. I insist you take the bed."

"Alright then." Allura chuckled and carefully climbed under the covers. "If you insist but where will you sleep?"

"I'll take the couch." Keith says and yawns and stretches.

Allura looked at the worn thatched couch and frowned. The cushions looked like they had been flattened from Keith's weight and from what she recalled, he didn't even fully fit on it. His legs dangled off of the side. Guilt bubbled up in her chest as she thought about her poor friend losing sleep because she was in his bed.

"No Keith, I shouldn't be taking your bed." Allura insists.

"It's not as uncomfortable as it looks." Keith says. "Besides I've slept in worse."

"I know but still..." Allura says and pouts. "The bed is big enough for two..." She thinks out loud.

"Uh...are you saying that you want me to share the bed with you?" Keith blushes and points to it.

"Oh Ancients no! That would be extremely inappropriate..." Allura says and runs her hands through her hair and blushes.

Keith scratched the back of his neck and looked away from her as well.

"Yeah...definitely." He agrees.

Allura looked at the couch and then a new idea struck her.

"Unless we made a barrier on the bed!" She exclaims cheerfully.

"You want me to build a wall on the bed?" Keith asks with an arched eyebrow.

She frowns and sticks out her bottom lip in annoyance of his denseness.

"No silly!" She exclaims. "I want you to use the pillows and couch cushions to make a divider between us so we can both appropriately share the bed that is perfectly sized for two people. We both have our privacy and can sleep comfortably."

"Sounds wonderful." Keith says and smiles. "And kind of brilliant. You sure you're not lying about your mind being foggy?"

He smirked when she hit him with the pillow. He chuckled and tossed it back to her.

He set up the barrier between them and then climbed into bed on the right side, and Allura took the left.

Kosmo yawned and turned in a circle before settling down in a big heap of fur on the floor at the foot of the bed.

"Goodnight Allura." Keith says.

"Goodnight Keith." She replies.

—

Pidge yawned and rested her hand on her cheek as she sat in the kitchen with Chip and tried to find the anomaly frequency on his hard drive.

"Is it this one?" Chip asks excitedly.

Pidge looked at the picture of lines on a projection screen from his chest.

"No..." She says.

"Oh..." Chip says and looks down. "Wait! Let me try this one?"

"No..." Pidge said sleepily.

Chip brought up another projection screen then noticed his creator's eyes closing and her cheek slipped from her hand and landed on the table with a soft thud and she began snoring.

"Uh...Pidge?" Chip asks. "Commander?"

He reaches forward to poke her awake but another hand covers his, stopping him.

"Lance?" Chip asks.

"Shh..." Lance whispers and smiles at Pidge.

"She's been searching for the source of Allura's anomaly with you for hours. She needs rest." Lance tells him and walks closer to his sleeping friend.

"But I have strict orders from Pidge to not stop this search until I have successfully found the location of the source of Allura's anomaly." Chip counters.

"Yeah, well I'm writing an override." Lance says.

He delicately scoops Pidge up in his arms, carrying her bridal style. He could hear his heart beating faster when she snuggled her head against his shoulder and he couldn't help but think how peaceful and beautiful she looked when she was asleep.

After staring for a minute he finally moved his feet and began the trek to bring her upstairs. The floorboards creaked under his weight, so he tried to step lightly and slowly to avoid waking Pidge, and also because a small part of him wanted to make this last for as long as possible. He liked holding her in his arms. How small she was in comparison to him had always amused him but now there was something almost attractive to him about their size difference. In fact, there were a lot of things about Pidge he found attractive. How had he never noticed-

Veronica cleared her throat at the top of the stairs and made Lance nearly drop Pidge.

"Veronica." He hissed at her through gritted teeth. "You scared the quiznack out of me!"

"First of all, I don't think you're using that word correctly." Veronica says and Lance growls.

"Secondly, and more importantly, does the fact that you're carrying Pidge like this mean that you've finally confessed your feelings for her?" Veronica asks.

If Lance hadn't been holding Pidge, he would have exploded at his sister. But the way she was snoring into his shoulder was so cute...he wanted her to stay asleep. So he opted for a softer response, although his tomato-red and frowning face conveyed otherwise.

"Have you finally told Acxa you're into her?" He retorts and she blushes. "I mean you guys are practically a thing already with her coming over here all the time. I thought you were already official but I asked mom today and she said you're still claiming to be single-"

"Well gee Lance. Look who's talking, considering you've got a girl coming over here all the time too, and now you're cradling her in your arms right in front of me. A little hypocritical don't you think?" Veronica retorts and puts her hands on her hips.

"What are you talking about?" He whispers.

"Do I really need to spell it out for you?" She asks. "Look at how you're holding her. You're cradling her like she's an injured bird. She's clearly precious to you."

"Of course she is." Lance argues. "She's my best friend."

"People don't hold their 'friends' like that Lance." Veronica says. "And it's not just this. You've been talking and thinking about her a lot lately. And whenever you do, your eyes light up and you seem so much happier than usual. Lance, I know you know what this means-"

"I know." Lance admits. "But I can't let it mean that right now...there's a good chance Allura's been revived somehow. And she loves me and I love her. If Pidge and I find her alive, which I think we will, then I'm gonna be with Allura. So I can't be in love with Katie right now." He says and looks at her with a look of sadness and longing on his face.

"I understand." Veronica says softly and smiles at him. "Just be careful with her." She says and looks at Pidge.

"Believe me, hurting her is the last thing I'd ever want to do." Lance says and walks past Veronica.

He yawns and blinks a few times himself, adjusting his hold on Pidge as he walked into a room and carried her to the bed. He grunted as he freed one of his arms, supporting her full weight with the other to pull back the covers and then he laid her down onto the mattress.

He took off her shoes and then blushed as he gently touched the bridge of her nose to remove her glasses. Her nose scrunched up like a little bunny and Lance couldn't help but giggle from how cute that looked. He set the glasses down on the bedside table and then tucked her in. She smiled and turned on her side, short tawny hair covering her cheek and Lance took a moment to sit down on her bedside and just think about how those tiny little freckles he never noticed before on her face looked like the stars in the sky. And before he knew it, he started to drift off too. Falling over and laying on her side as she slept.

—

"Hoo! Hoo!" A noise was heard from outside.

Allura sat straight up in bed, eyes wide with fear.

"Who?" She whispers back. "Who's there?"

"Hoo! Hoo!"

She gasped and held the blanket up by her chest. She quickly looked over the pillow barrier to see if Keith was awake. To her despair, he was sound asleep.

"Keith!" She whispers.

Nothing.

"Keith!" She tried again, a tad louder.

He shifted in his sleep a bit but then settled down again.

Allura bit her lip. She couldn't risk raising her voice any higher and alerting the intruder that she knew of their presence. So she opted to push on Keith with the cushion that separated her side of the bed from his.

He only frowned and groaned, squirming away from the pillow wall as Allura heard the noise again and shrieked softly in fear.

That was it! She needed to wake him up now! Throwing caution to the wind, she tossed one of the cushions separating them aside and grabbed his bicep and shoulder, not even caring how firm it felt under her hand, although that was a lovely little fact that her hormonal, quintessence scrambled mind stored for later, and she began to shake him.

"Keith! Keith!" She whispered.

Finally he turned to lay on his back, groaning softly in his sleep. His eyes squeezed shut tighter before he opened them to look at Allura.

"'Lura what's up?" He rasps sleepily.

"Oh, his morning voice is so se- Cut it out brain!" Allura mentally scolded herself. Ancients, no one told her the beginning of the fertile stage would be this annoying and distracting in Altean health class. There were much more important matters to deal with right now.

"I think there's some deranged person outside." Allura whispers to him.

Keith's eyes opened wide and he sat straight up in bed, on high alert.

"You sure?" He asks her.

She nods and he reaches over to the bedside table and her eyes widen when she sees him grab his knife. He looked at it then looked out the window, trying to see if there was any movement through the curtain. He looked down at Kosmo who was asleep on the floor. He brought two fingers into his mouth and whistled softly.

The wolf's head instantly picked up and he looked at his master for his next command. Keith nodded his head towards the door then frowned at him.

Kosmo snarled and stood up to his full height, making Allura gasp in fear and scramble back closer to the pillows. Then he teleported outside and continued to growl.

"Don't worry." Keith whispers to her. "Whichever one of those filthy squatters is out there'll get scared off by Kosmo. It works most of the time."

"Filthy squatters? Most of the time?" Allura asks.

Keith bit the inside of his cheek and looked down at his knife and then up at Allura. He scooted a bit closer to her on the bed.

"This little settlement has kind of been a family home for generations." Keith explains. "But we're not the only ones who know about it. My dad had a lot of friends. Most of them were good but some of them...were involved in some pretty shady stuff. And a little place like this, completely off the grid, out in the middle of nowhere. Perfect place for a criminal to hide out."

"Is someone going to attack us?" Allura asks.

"Not us." Keith says and holds up his knife. "Me. That bastard's not even gonna have a chance to lay eyes on you before my knife's in him."

A shiver ran down her spine from how serious Keith sounded.

"Get behind me." Keith ordered, realizing she was on the side of the bed closest to the entrances.

Allura quickly scurried behind him and he moved to her side and held up his knife in defense.

"You know you're in no condition to fight right now." Keith reminds her.

She nods in agreement.

"So until you're fully recovered just let me protect you okay?" He pleads to her and takes her hand and gives it a gentle squeeze.

She nods in agreement.

"Now did you see this guy?" Keith asks.

"No I heard him." Allura said. "He kept asking 'Who?'"

Keith tilted his head in confusion and looked back at her.

"Who?"

"Hoo! Hoo!"

"There it is again!" Allura jumps.

Keith sighed and lowered his knife and his head slumped forward and his long hair fanned in front of his face, hiding his smile from Allura.

"Keith?" She asks.

"Allura..." He says and looks up at her. "That's not a person. That's an animal. A nocturnal bird called an owl."

Allura felt her cheeks heat up in embarrassment and she rubbed her arms self-consciously. She winced and frowned when she heard Keith snort.

"It's not funny!" She scolds him.

"It's a little funny." He tells her and flashes her that beautiful grin of his and she couldn't help but smile back.

A chirping noise was heard outside and she yelped and hugged a pillow.

"Is that some sort of alarm?" She exclaims.

"Close." Keith says. "It's a cricket."

She gave him a deadpan look and he smirked. The next noise was a coyote howl.

"Okay now that one sounded dangerous." Allura says.

"And you'd be correct." Keith says. "That's a coyote howl. Coyotes are predators but they won't bother you if you don't bother them."

Kosmo howls loudly in response to the coyotes. Due to his large size, the sound is a bit too loud, making Keith and Allura cover their ears.

"Shut up Kosmo!" Keith calls out to him. "Charlene's not into you like that!"

"Charlene?" Allura asks.

"Some coyote he's got a major crush on. He won't stop howling about her." Keith says.

"Awwww..." Allura says.

Keith arches an eyebrow as he got back under the covers.

"I thought you hated Kosmo?" Keith asks. "I wouldn't say I hate him." Allura says.

"I'm not overly fond of his scent and his hair but those two things aside I rather like his personality and demeanor. They make for a good companion. Like you." She teases and Keith frowns and sniffs himself.

"You saying you don't like my hair?" Keith asks and sits up. "Is it too long?" He pulls a strand out.

"Oh Keith, darling the length is not the issue. It's your bangs. They look like they were cut by an Altean toddler and-"

"Wait what did you just call me?" Keith asks her.

She frowns in confusion.

"What do you mean? I said your name. Keith." Allura says.

"Yeah. Keith, darling." He reminds her.

Her cheeks redden.

"Oh Keith, dar-I mean-" She stutters and he quickly gets off of the bed.

Her heart races in fear that she gave him the wrong impression.

"Keith it's nothing. I call the mice my darlings all the time, and my mind is so scrambled the word must have slipped-" She quickly explains.

"I don't think it did." Keith says and looks at her seriously.

She gulped then looked down at the pad of paper in his hand.

"The night you came back to life you were mumbling random words in your sleep. I wrote them all down in order." He explains and climbs back on the bed next to her and shows her the paper. "The first thing you said after you stopped glowing was 'Keith'. After that,"

"Darling." She finishes for him.

They both look at each other.

"And you just called me 'Keith, darling.'" Keith emphasizes.

"The same order as last night." Allura says. "Do you think there's some sort of connection?"

"I don't know maybe it's some sort of memory code, connected to how you were revived?" Keith suggests.

"Perhaps." Allura suggests. "But my mind is still a bit foggy on the subject of alchemy since I'm without my powers so I can't say for sure."

She looks at the other words and their order.

"Keith, darling, Altea, peace, daughter, rift, destruction, K-" She stops reading the words out loud and frowns.

"Yeah that one really stands out. The others are just regular words but this one's a name." Keith says.

"A name?" Allura asks.

"Yeah." Keith affirms. "Who's Keira?"

—

 **A/N:** Dun. Dun. DUUUUUNNNN! I've introduced SO MUCH COOL DRAMA IN THIS CHAPTER I AM SO PROUD OF MYSELF! Please comment if you want more! I promise you won't be disappointed with what I have in store, but you'll only get more if you comment what you liked about this chapter! ;)


	5. Saving You

**A/N:** I am SO SORRY about the late update! I got a case of writer's block and school and sports got kind of busy and I just ended up procrastinating a lot. But now I've finally got it written! Hopefully the next chapters will come out quicker! I hope you enjoy!

A rooster crowed outside and Pidge groaned as she sleepily opened up her eyes. She turned to the window and frowned when she saw the sunlight slowly filter in through the gap in the curtains.

Does the day really have to start the second the sun rises here? Pidge thought to herself.

She wasn't a morning person by a long-shot, and especially not this early in the morning. But she didn't want to take advantage of the McClain's hospitality so she offered to help out with some of the farm chores today. Unfortunately that meant she'd have to get up early. But for Lance, she'd do anything.

She shifted in the bed and was surprised to find that she couldn't move as easily as she should, like there was something on top of her weighing her down. She looked down and her face turned bright red when she saw Lance laying down on top of her, his head resting on her chest as he snored, blissfully unaware of who he was sleeping on top of.

He smiled in his sleep and wrapped his arms around Pidge's torso, holding her tighter to him.

"Lance..." Pidge softly whispers.

"Such a soft pillow." He mumbles sleepily and nuzzles his face against her.

Pidge shrieked and then then Lance's eyes fluttered open. He picked his head up, saw that he was holding Pidge in his arms and screamed. She screamed back and then they both tried to get out of each other's arms but they ended up getting even more tangled in the sheets and rolling onto the floor.

Veronica was downstairs, helping make breakfast but she rushed upstairs as soon as she heard the thud. She threw the door to the guest room open and found Pidge on the floor.

"Pidge are you alright-" She gasps when she sees the sheet move and Lance appear from under it.

She goes from concerned to smug in a snap.

"Oh so you two slept together huh?" She asks teasingly.

Pidge and Lance both scurry away from each other on the floor.

"No we didn't!" They both scream at the same time.

"Well technically we did but-" Lance started then stopped when Pidge hit him in the head with a pillow.

"It's not what you think!" Pidge insists.

Veronica just laughs at the two of them.

"I know, I know. I'm just teasing you guys. Breakfast is ready so come down whenev-" Before Veronica can finish her sentence, Pidge rushes out of the room in embarrassment.

"Er you're ready..." She finishes and looks at Lance.

His face was still beet red and he was staring at the blanket on the floor.

"So how'd you end up in Pidge's bed last night?" Veronica asks him smugly.

"I didn't mean to." He tells her sternly. "We were both just really tired. She was already asleep and I sat down on the bed next to her to tuck her in and exhaustion overtook me and I fell asleep too. There's nothing more to be said. Pidge is just a friend. Allura's still the one I love."

"Okay." Veronica says and gives her baby brother a hug. "It's your heart, so it's your choice."

Meanwhile, Pidge ran downstairs to try to get as far away from Lance and Veronica as possible. Her heart was racing, she couldn't believe that she and Lance had spent the whole night cuddled in each other's arms! The thought made her whole body tingle with excitement and she just knew that she'd let something slip regarding her crush on him if she stuck around any longer.

"Hey Auntie Pidge!" Nadia, Lance's niece calls to her and she stops in her tracks and turns to the children who had left the kitchen table to come stand in front of her.

"Uh, you kids know to just call me Pidge right? No need to have 'Aunt' in there." She says and laughs. "I'm not related to you..."

"Okay!" Nadia says nonchalantly. "We have a lot of chores to do today. Do you mind helping us out?"

"Of course!" Pidge says cheerfully.

This means I'll be able to get out of the house and get some space to clear my head. She thinks to herself.

"What do you guys need me to do?" Pidge asks.

Lance's nephew, Carlos hands her a basket.

"We need you to collect some eggs from the chicken coop!" He says and smiles.

"Oh...eggs, from chickens. Perfect." Pidge says, faking a smile while her face paled.

"Who's Keira?"

Allura did not know. That question haunted her in her dreams that night. In fact, her dreams that night seemed to only give her more questions about the person who this name belonged to and even fewer answers. She was back inside of what appeared to be the cradle of creation. The place where she died.

She gasped when she heard a little girl's laughter. She looked around, trying to locate where the sound was coming from but she couldn't see anyone. Just glowing particles of quintessence.

She blinked a few times, trying to remember something, a reason for her being here. She was in the afterlife, shouldn't she have all of her questions answered instead of asking herself new ones. Her path was ended, there was nothing else for her to learn, so why was she feeling so uncertain of her place in this realm?

"You still have questions because your journey is not complete." A voice says behind her.

Allura turned and tears of joy streamed down her cheeks when she saw the face of her mother.

"Mother." She says. "Father!"

Alfor appeared next to his wife. She ran to them and hugged them both. The three of them held each other tightly. It had been so long since the three of them had embraced. Their family was whole again. For a moment she felt complete. But then she heard that laughter again and her ears perked up and she looked around.

"We cannot give you any answers about the rest of your journey while you're here visiting but since you're in the afterlife you're bound to come across a few hints." Melenor chuckled.

Allura heard the laughter again and gasped as she felt a tug in her heart. She felt like she wanted to find the girl and embrace her, and laugh with her. The sound of her laughter made her feel immense joy, she wanted to see the smile and the bright eyes that belonged to the girl. But she had never met her, she knew nothing about this child. So why was her heart yearning to find her?

She looked back at her parents and found them both smiling at her, holding each other's hands and giving each other a knowing look.

"Can you see it in her eyes?" Alfor asked his wife.

They both turned to face Allura and Melenor covered her heart with her hand.

"That sparkle, it's so beautiful." She says and cups her daughter's cheek. "It twinkles just like you did when you were in mine when I was your age."

Allura's brows furrowed in confusion until she heard the laughter again but this time she realized why she couldn't see the child it belonged to, and she woke from the dream with her heart racing and softly muttering the word "Voltron".

Her eyelids fluttered open and she saw the light streaming in through the window and she smiled, the sound of the wind rushing between the cliffs and mountains of the desert calming her racing heart that she had forgotten the reason for why she awoke with it beating at such a rapid pace in the first place. She knew it was a dream about her time in the afterlife because such things would be vague to her while she was awake in the physical world and only available in her subconscious. But she did recall seeing her mother and father, and the sound of a little girl's laughter that made a warm feeling spread through her chest and a smile creep on her face as she recalled it.

She contentedly snuggled against the firm couch cushion that separated her side of the bed from Keith's and sighed happily from how warm it was, and how Earthy it smelled. She furrowed her brows slightly and sniffed the fabric of the cushion and smiled as a musky, timber scent filled her nose. She blushed, realizing this scent must have come from Keith. She liked it, it made her feel safe and warm and reminded her she was alive and with one of her dear friends.

She moved her hand up to find a place to grip the cushion and then grunted in confusion when she felt some hard lumps on it. She pressed on it and grew even more perplexed at how firm these lumps were. She knew next to nothing about Earth furniture but common sense told her that something this hard would certainly have no place inside something that was meant to be sat on.

Her eyes fluttered open as she decided to see what was causing this anomaly as she slid her hand under the fabric of the cushion and she looked up and a slight blush crept on her cheeks when she saw Keith's peaceful sleeping face. The sunlight shone against his alabaster skin and the sweat droplets that had collected on his raven hair during the night made it shine as various strands and locks of his now longer mane lay messily about his head on the pillow and covered some of his face. He looked like he had slept well. She was happy for that. But then she wondered how she was able to see Keith's face through the pillow barrier.

Her eyes widened immediately when she remembered that after she and Keith went back to sleep neither of them had bothered to replace the cushion. She pressed her hand down and instead of feeling couch stuffing she felt smooth, warm skin. Those hard lumps were his abs!

She then became aware of two strong arms wrapped around her waist as Keith shifted in his sleep and wrapped them tighter around her. One of Keith's hands was resting on the small of her back, under her t-shirt, and the other had was resting halfway up her ribcage and his thumb was a hair away from touching the underside of her-

She gasped when his hips shifted and she felt something hard poking her thigh. She screamed and Keith instantly woke up. He groaned and picked his head up, blinking sleep from his eyes and looking for danger only to see his arms wrapped around Allura, his left hand on the small of her back.

Heat rose to his cheeks as his eyes quickly followed the curve of her side to find his other hand nearly touching her-

He shouted in surprise and immediately pulled away, his face bright red while hers was crimson as she quickly scuttled to the edge of the bed, holding her shirt down with her hands tightly as if it would somehow ride up on her of it's own accord. Keith gulped when he noticed how angry she looked.

"Why were you cuddling me?" Allura angrily asked him.

"I don't know I was asleep!" Keith exclaimed. "I didn't mean to!"

"Well this is all your fault!" Allura scolded him.

"My fault?" Keith asked, confused as to why she was blaming him.

"You didn't put the cushion back last night after I woke you up." Allura tells him.

Keith looks down and sees the cushion by his side of the bed and blushes.

"And then I wake up to find your hand under my shirt you pervert!" Allura accuses him again and looks away from him, a band of red across the bridge of her nose.

"Pervert!?" Keith exclaims and heat rushes to his cheeks. "You're accusing me of trying to cop a feel while I seem to recall your hands under my shirt too, feeling up my abs!"

Her face turned even redder and she squeaked in embarrassment after he mentioned that little incident. Keith smirked, knowing he'd won the argument. She looked rather cute when she was flustered, he had to admit.

"Well then how do you explain that!" Allura retorts and points to the tent in Keith's sweatpants. "You're obviously aroused!" She says and crosses her arms over her chest and gives Keith a satisfied smile, thinking she's successfully called out his bluff.

Keith just laughed and ran his hand through his messy long hair.

"This ain't for you princess." Keith says and points at his crotch. "Guys get these like five times a night no matter what, and I always wake up with one."

"Why?" Allura asks.

"'Cause I have to piss." Keith says casually with a shrug. "It's called morning wood."

"Ew!" Allura says and her nose scrunches up and she shivers in disgust and looks at Keith's crotch. "Penises are gross."

"Yeah you're not wrong." Keith agrees.

He gets off of the bed and comes over to her side and sits down next to her.

"But I am sorry about accidentally cuddling you...and almost touching your boob." He adds on with a blush and a cough.

Allura's face gets red again and she pulls her knees up to her chest as if to further hide it from Keith.

"It was an accident and won't happen again." Keith continues and gives her a serious look. "I'd never purposely touch you without your consent. But if you want to slap me in the face right now for accidentally cuddling you then I wouldn't blame you. I deserve it-"

"No you don't." Allura says softly, her anger subsiding. "I shouldn't have been so harsh. I know it was obviously an accident. I just overreacted. I've never been held so intimately like that before, not even by Lance..." Her voice trailed off and her eyes glossed over with tears.

"Please don't cry." Keith softly requests and places his hand on her knee.

She stops sniffling and looks up at him.

"You will be with him again. If that's what will make you happy then I'll do everything in my power to get you back to him as soon as possible." Keith promises, disguising the hurt in his voice from saying those words to the woman he's been in love with for nearly a decade.

"Thank you Keith." Allura says and dries her eyes with her fingers. "But right now what would make me happy is some food."

Her stomach grumbles and Keith lets out a short laugh.

"Sounds good." Keith says and stands up.

Allura watches as Keith stands up and pulls his hair back into a ponytail, tying it with a hair tie that he kept around his wrist. He yawned and rubbed one of his eyes and stumbled into the kitchen and over to the fridge to get out the carton of eggs.

"Eggs. It's just their eggs." Pidge told herself as she stood in front of the chicken coop.

She gripped the basket tightly in her hands as the chickens walked around their fenced in pen, occasionally staring at her with their beady eyes and cocking their heads to the side and squawking.

Pidge yelped and held out the basket to shield her. She opened on eye and groaned in frustration with herself, throwing the basket down as she slapped her hands to her cheeks.

"They're just birds Pidge!" She peps herself. "You're a human being and a scientist. You're more powerful than them, they can't hurt you..." She looks at them all, standing between her and the coop where she would have to get the eggs and she gulped.

She carefully walked up to the fence and looked in, trying to see if there was some sort of clear path to the chicken coop but the chickens were moving all over the place. There was no way she'd be able to sneak in, and she didn't have anything to fend them off...

She looked around and laid eyes on a black umbrella that was leaning up against the front porch of the house.

"Perfect." She said as the gears in her head started turning.

The chickens all picked their heads up when they saw a small girl glaring at them as she opened the gate to their pen and then closed and locked it behind her. She shook out the umbrella she was holding and then as the chickens charged her she opened it up and pushed them back.

"Heh. Your dumb bird brains can't beat mine!" She declares as she carefully side-steps her way to the coop.

Allura laid down on her stomach on the bed with her knees bent so her feet were in the air. She occasionally kicked them back and forth as she looked at the book that Keith had given her to read. She couldn't actually read it because it was written in English and while she was able to speak it, reading it was another story. But she enjoyed the pictures.

So...much...Earth food. She felt a small droplet of drool drip down from the corner of her mouth as she salivated over the pictures of cakes and cheesy pastas and breads oozing with sauces and juicy meats cooked to perfection. She recognized some of these dishes from ones that Hunk had made for her before. What she wouldn't give to have one of those melted cheese sandwiches right now...

She frowned when she sensed a large furry presence beside her and turned to find Kosmo looking at the book over her shoulder, equally salivating over the delicious looking food. She huffed and took the book and turned away from the large wolf and he whined from behind her, wanting to have a look too. But after a few ticks he gave up and padded over to Keith who was currently having a video meeting with Ezor, Zethrid and Acxa.

"How much longer are we gonna have to wait for the sweets for the kids?" Keith asks them.

"The supplier said it would take them at least two weeks." Ezor says.

"We tried to negotiate with them but apparently there's some sort of space storm that's going to delay them no matter what." Acxa says.

"Well I don't want to keep those kids waiting, nor do I want to show up at the orphanage empty handed." Keith says and sighs.

Allura rests her cheek on her hand and watches as Keith runs his hand through his bangs and rests his forehead on his palm as he tries to think of a solution to this problem. She tried to think of one too. She felt guilty about having to stay in his home, taking his clothes, his bed and now here she was using little sticky squares of paper to pick out which Earth foods he would spend his hard earned money to buy for her.

Once she returned to New Altea and took her place as Queen then she would be sure to pay him back handsomely for all of the money he'd spent on her but who knows how long that would take? And what if she could never return to her people and she'd be stuck living off of his kindness forever? She fiddled with the corner of a page as she mulled over her thoughts about her future situation when Ezor broke the silence with an idea.

"Hey wait a minute!" Ezor says. "Don't the Garrison students have a community service requirement?"

"Yeah they do." Keith says. "Why do you ask?"

"Because that means we can just ask them to bake for us!" Ezor suggests. "They need the hours and we need the manpower. It all works out!"

"That's a brilliant idea Ezor." Keith compliments.

"Thanks boss." Ezor says and winks.

"We could also get in contact with Hunk." Acxa suggests. "Romelle may have some recipes that are favored among Altean children."

Allura picked her head up and Keith looked at her, figuring she would overhear that and he smiled and winked at her.

"Who are you winking at?" Ezor asks teasingly.

Keith immediately whips his head back towards the screen, hoping that they wouldn't notice the blush on his cheeks.

"Uh...no one. Just Kosmo." He says.

"You wink at your wolf?" Zethrid asks.

"Yes. He heard the word sweets and now he's all-Ah!" Keith exclaims as Kosmo teleports on top of him.

Keith was pinned down on the floor under the weight of his wolf, his chair broken and Kosmo looked down at Keith, wondering how he had gotten underneath him on the floor and then looked at the three alien women on the screen and barked happily at them. The three girls laughed and even Allura couldn't help but let out a little chuckle from the sight of Keith struggling to get out from under his large cosmic canine.

The galra trio signed off and Kosmo looked down at Keith and barked at him, happily wagging his tail in Keith's face.

"Kosmo, off." Keith grunts a command and the wolf barks and teleports off of his master.

Keith took deep breaths to refill his lungs with air and Kosmo sat on his haunches and looked at his master from the other side of the room, wagging his tail as Keith stood up and walked back towards Allura in the main living room.

"Those sweets are going to an Altean orphanage?" Allura asks Keith and sits up, propping herself up on one arm as Keith made his way over to her.

"Yeah. The Blades have been helping all different races of aliens all across the universe. We're a humanitarian relief organization for now, but I'm hoping that maybe within a decade or so we could become some sort of agency to keep the peace between everyone, as a way to fulfill you and your father's wishes for universal peace." Keith explains and smiles at her.

She started to tear up and covered her mouth in surprise.

"Oh Keith..." She says and hugs his torso as he stood by the side of the bed. "That sounds wonderful! I always knew you would do great things and now you're helping make the Galra peacekeepers just like the Alteans! I imagine Lance is helping my people become the great diplomats they were once famed for 10,000 years ago?"

"Uh..." Keith starts then trails off. "Well he has been living with his family on Altea."

Allura's face lit up and she blushed, thinking about how she would get to live with him on Altea once she was able to be in his presence again-

"Running a farm." Keith says and her smile falls.

"A farm?" Allura asks and tilts her head.

Well, it's not like there was anything wrong with farming. Allura thought to herself. It was a perfectly good and necessary profession for society. The only reason she was surprised to hear of Lance's career is because Keith had told her earlier that all of the paladins had been dedicated to spreading her message throughout the universe. All of the others had been doing that by building robots, sharing culture through food, and by helping those in need to keep the peace and quell unrest while the galran government re-stabilized. But how could Lance spread her message by staying...stationary on a farm? Needless to say she was confused.

"Yeah." Keith says and nods. "He grows ingredients for Hunk and the rest of us get free produce too. Pidge goes up to visit him a lot." He bites his tongue after mentioning that.

Keith wasn't blind. He knew that Pidge had been crushing on Lance for quite some time, way before he even met them. And since Allura had been gone, no one could deny that certain feelings were starting to come to light between the two of them. And Allura still clearly loved Lance. It'd break her heart if she knew that another woman, one of her friends, could potentially steal him away from her. And breaking her heart is the last thing that Keith would ever think of doing.

"That's nice. Those three were always such good friends. I'm glad that they're still so close after all of this time." Allura says and plays with one of the holes in her t-shirt. "I wish I could heal faster so that I could see them sooner. And so that I can be of some use to you here instead of just stealing your bed and clothes and eating your food-"

"Hey, you don't have to feel bad about any of that." Keith says. "You've sacrificed more than anyone else for this world. Giving up a few trivial material things of my own for you isn't nearly enough to thank you for that."

Allura smiled at him then blushed when he leaned down to pick her up.

"What are you doing?" Allura asks as she's scooped up into Keith's arms.

He lifts her off of the bed with ease and then proceeds to carry her towards the front door of his house.

"I am taking you to come get some fresh air with me and Kosmo." Keith says. "You shouldn't be cooped up in here all day it's not good for your health."

"But it's so hot outside." Allura pouts.

"I'll keep you on the porch. You'll be in the shade." Keith says and opens the door with some difficulty since he was holding her while trying to open it and carries her outside.

He brings her over to a chair and gently sets her down on it. From this position she had a perfect view of the tree next to his house and Allura looks confused by something on it.

"Why do you have a tire hanging from a rope?" Allura asks and points to the tire swing on the tree.

"It's an old swing I used to play on when I was a kid." Keith explains.

Allura's ears perked up with joy and she squirmed in her seat.

"Can I swing on it while you push me?" She requests.

"No." Keith answers, shaking his head. "That thing is at least 20 years old, the rope is covered in mold and is fraying rapidly, it would snap the second I sat you down on it." Keith says and points at the swing.

Allura's bright eyes dimmed and she pouted.

"Oh...so much for that fun plan then..." She sighs.

Keith's smile fell from the sight of her disappointment and he scratched the back of his head.

"Well I've been meaning to replace it." He says to her in an effort to cheer her up. "Adam's getting older and Shiro and Curtis drop him off here a lot for me to babysit so I've been meaning to get a new rope so he can swing on it." Keith says and examines it.

"Did they adopt Adam from the orphanage that you're currently trying to obtain sweets for?" Allura asks him.

"Yeah." Keith says and smiles. "There's a lot of good kids just like Adam there. I want to do whatever I can to make sure they're fed, dressed and happy."

"I was never very good with children." Allura admits. "Sometimes I would have to visit orphanages on official royal business and I just wouldn't know what to do with myself. I was always taught how to speak with officials and diplomats, adult Alteans. But I was never prepared for how to address children or communicate well with them. I would always refer them back to their parents. But I'm older now, and these are Altean children in need." Allura says and grips the arm-rests of the chair. "I should help them too." She began to push herself up to stand.

"Whoa! What are you doing?" Keith asks and rushes to grab her waist to keep her from falling.

"My people are without a leader. I know that I can't become their Queen yet but perhaps I could help them in some other way. I was thinking that maybe I could help them through you." Allura suggests.

"Through me?" Keith asks, confused and blushing slightly.

"Yes." Allura says and lets go of the chair and holds his shoulders to steady herself. "Through the blades specifically. Your masks hide your faces. If I wear a blade's armor then I'd be able to help and no one would know it's me."

Keith smiled. It was a brilliant idea.

"That's perfect." He says. "If you're well enough by that time I'll let you come with me to Altea."

"Perfect! Then I should start practicing walking." Allura says. "If I'm going to blend in with the other blade members then I'm going to need to be able move around on my own. Also, you won't have to carry me around everywhere anymore."

Keith felt his heart drop for a second. He didn't mind carrying her around everywhere she needed to go. In fact, he rather enjoyed the physical contact. But he reminded himself that her happiness should come before his own.

"Yeah...let's try it." He says and holds her waist to keep her upright as she shakily tries to take a step.

Lance walked outside onto the front porch to take in a deep breath of fresh air, only to find his niece, nephew and Veronica on the porch, watching something over by the chicken coop and laughing.

"What are you guys doing?" Lance asks.

"We're watching Auntie Pidge play with the chickens!" Nadia giggles.

"The chickens?" Lance asks. "Why is she in the chicken coop? Pidge is terrified of birds."

"She is?" Veronica asks. "Then why would she say yes to helping out the kids with their chores in there?"

"Stay back!" Pidge shouts and the kids laugh.

Lance picks his head up and his eyes widen in surprise when he sees Pidge with an umbrella, backing up to the coop where she'd have to get the eggs out of the nests.

"Don't come any closer you feathered demons!" Pidge screams and thrusts her umbrella towards the chickens as they try to approach her.

She backs up into the coop and disappears inside. Lance couldn't help but shake his head and laugh. Pidge really was something. She was the smartest person he knew, and yet sometimes she still managed to do things that you wouldn't expect of her.

"Uh oh." Nadia says and points at the coop.

Lance's eyes widened as he watches all of the chickens rush inside of the coop. Without even thinking he leaps over the porch railing and sprints towards the pen as he hears Pidge scream from inside. He braces his hands on the wooden gate door and swings his legs over it before making his way inside of the coop to find Pidge cowering up against the wall as the chickens squawked and flapped their wings around her.

Lance shooed them all away before scooping Pidge up in his arms.

Pidge opened her eyes and blushed when she saw Lance's concerned face looking at her as she was cradled in his arms like a princess or a bride.

"Are you okay Katie?" Lance asks her.

Katie...He called her bye her real name. There was that warm, tightening feeling in her chest again.

"Uh..uh, y-yeah I'm fine." Pidge says nervously and pushes her glasses up her nose.

She looked away from him, hoping he wouldn't see her blushing. Thankfully for Lance, since she was looking away, she couldn't see the red on his cheeks either.

"Ooo look at how Uncle Lance is carrying Auntie Pidge!" Marcos points as they emerge from the coop together.

Nadia gasped and her eyes lit up as she held her hands together and swayed back and forth.

"Oh! So romantic! He's carrying her like a princess!" Nadia exclaims.

A chicken squawked at Pidge and she screamed and held onto Lance tighter, burying her face in his chest.

Lance couldn't help but snicker. But then he stopped when he looked down and saw Pidge glaring at him, so he changed his smirk to a soft smile.

"Don't worry, I won't let them hurt you." Lance says. "This is my farm after all. So technically I'm their master."

Pidge laughed as Lance swung one of his long legs over the gate, followed by the other one as he brought Pidge to safety and reluctantly set her down.

She was a bit reluctant to leave his arms but when he set her down she didn't protest. She wasn't the girl who still had his heart after all...

"Thanks for uh, saving me in there." She says and plays with a lock of her tawny hair. "You're like my knight in shining armor." She jokes.

"Well we are war heroes." Lance says. "It doesn't hurt to be heroic every now and then. Especially if it's my best friend who's the damsel in distress-"

"Hey I was not in distress! I could have handled it!" Pidge argues.

"Yeah, finding you hiding in a corner screaming as chickens hop all over you definitely paints the picture of someone who's in charge of the situation." Lance retorts with a smirk. "Ow!"

Pidge punched him in the gut and he doubled over in pain. He looked up and found that he was now at eye-level with her.

"If you were as short as me, you'd be scared of them to!" She argues.

"Fair enough." Lance says with a groan as he stands back up. "But why were you even collecting eggs from them in the first place? Aren't you terrified of birds?"

"I am." Pidge says. "They creep me out, but when Nadia and Carlos asked me to collect their eggs, I don't know why but I just felt like I couldn't say no to them. Your family's always so kind to me whenever I come to visit. I just don't want to feel like I'm taking advantage of them."

"You're not taking advantage of us pigeon." Lance tells her.

Pidge glared at him briefly from her nickname before softening her gaze.

"You're my best friend, you're one of the most important people in my life. I care about you so much. It's like you're already a part of my family." Lance says and Pidge's eyes widen and she blushes.

Lance quickly realizes his error and he blushes and coughs and thinks of a quick way to change the subject.

"Now how about we go do a different chore? One that doesn't involve birds?" Lance suggests.

"Sounds great!" Pidge says and follows Lance to the barn.

Allura's walking lesson went pretty well. She tripped and fell into Keith's chest a few times, resulting in awkward blushes from both of them but aside from that, Allura was able to take a few steps on her own. She just needed more practice. But right now Keith wanted her to have some rest. So he let her take a nap on the porch chair while he played fetch with Kosmo.

"Okay boy go get the stick!" Keith says and tosses a stick off into a sand dune.

Kosmo watches it, wagging his tail before teleporting after it. He teleported back on top of Keith's chest and dropped the spitty branch onto his master's chest and wagging his tail.

"Yay. You brought it back." Keith groaned underneath him. "Good boy."

Kosmo suddenly picked his head up and turned towards the porch. He barked and Keith turned and his eyes widened when he saw that Allura had fallen out of the chair and was laying curled up on the floor, her aura of quintessence forming around her.

"Shit!" Keith exclaimed.

Kosmo let him up and he ran up the steps and carefully cradled her in his arms. He held the back of her head and searched her face for any sign of distress.

"Allura! Allura!" He called to her and she groaned.

Her eyes fluttered open and locked with his. She smiled and nuzzled her face into his hand as he pulled it away from the back of her head. His presence was helping, he let out a sigh of relief as he saw her quintessence starting to return to her fragile form.

"Keith..." Her soft voice called to him.

He looked at her glowing eyes and his eyes widened as she brought a shimmering hand up to cup his scarred cheek. His heart rate quickened as she brought her face closer to his.

"Darling..." She whispers. "You came back to me..."

He knew he should pull away, she loved Lance, he would never have her heart. And yet, he found himself getting pulled closer to her, like two opposite charges of a magnet being attracted to each other, and it felt right. He saw her lips move closer to his and he closed his eyes, his breath hitched and his heart leapt in his chest as he felt her lips gently brush against his and he held her tight, prepared to kiss her back and give in to the desire he's harbored for so many years but all of that comes crashing down with her hand smacking his cheek, making him turn away from her as she quickly scrambles to get out of his hold.

She backed up against the railing of the porch and watched as he winced and held his cheek where there was a red handprint forming before giving her a confused look. She had stopped glowing, her quintessence returned to her body and she was back to the way she was before her episode.

"What the quiznack do you think you were doing!" Allura exclaims.

Tears welled up in her eyes and instinctively Keith crawled towards her, wanting to hold her and keep her from crying but she shook her head and pressed herself more against the railing.

"Stay away from me!" Allura yells at him.

"Allura what's wrong I was just helping you-" Keith explains.

"You tried to kiss me!" Allura shouts.

Keith stopped his advancements as Allura frowned at him angrily.

"I tried to kiss you?" Keith repeats back to her.

"Yes! You did!" Allura affirms. "Are you going to try denying it? Because after waking up in your arms this morning and now this it's starting to seem like these little 'accidents' aren't exactly 'accidents'."

"They are accidents!" Keith argues. "We're living together now! We're gonna bump into each other occasionally!"

"Yes but I don't think our lips should be bumping into each other!" Allura retorts. "And our other body parts seem to linger a bit longer than they should."

Keith sighed, knowing she was referencing their accidental cuddle session, although for the record, it took both of them some time to move away from each other after realizing that they had spent the night in each other's arms.

Allura pulled herself up on one of the posts and held the railing to steady herself in a standing position.

"I think that's enough fresh air for one day." Allura says. "My head is quite clear now." She snaps at Keith and slowly stumbles towards the door.

Keith stood up. He held his arms out for her.

"Here, let me carry you." He offers.

"Absolutely not!" Allura retorts harshly. "The only man who is ever going to hold me so intimately again is Lance. Keep your filthy hands off of me unless it's an emergency from now on!" She declares and Keith scoffs.

"My filthy hands?" Keith asks incredulously. "These filthy hands have done nothing but help and fight for you since the moment I met you! And for your information, you're the one that tried to kiss me during your little episode just now. So maybe you should be the one apologizing?"

"I would never try to kiss you!" Allura argues. "My heart belongs to Lance!"

"Well it certainly didn't seem like it a dobosh ago." Keith retorts and Allura growls.

"Well even if I really did try to kiss you, you still tried to reciprocate! You're just as much in the wrong!" Allura declares angrily. "So go throw sticks at that filthy mutt of yours! I hope the biggest one you have hits him on the head!"

She turned back around and pushed open the door using her weight to move it.

"Fine then! I hope Kaltenecker squirts her milk in your face the next time you try to get a milkshake from Lance!" Keith shouts back.

Allura lets out an offended gasp and angrily slams his front door. Keith clenched his fists and his jaw clenched. Kosmo appeared beside him and whined.

"Don't worry buddy." He assures his wolf and pets his head. "I know I sounded mad a moment ago but I don't hate her. I could never hate her." He smiles. "I made a mistake, and we both let our stubbornness get the best of us, and now she won't accept my help, or accept that Lance might not be meeting the expectations she set for him..." He sighs.

Kosmo grunts and tilts his head at Keith, making him roll his eyes.

"No I don't think that I'm meeting her expectations either!" Keith tells him. "She's a princess. She deserves a Prince Charming that can make all her dreams come true, not some washed out desert hick with a ponytail and hardly any money to give her the life she deserves. The comfortable and happy life I would want to be able to give her once she's healed."

He looks back at his front door longingly. Little did he know that Allura was doing the same after she pulled herself up onto the bed, starting to feel guilty about snapping at him like that. Keith sighed.

"But who knows how long that'll take." He says and scratches Kosmo behind his ear. "If it takes a long time then I just hope she can forgive me soon. It's hard enough living in close quarters with a woman I love who I can't tell my true feelings to. It'll be even harder living with a powerful Goddess that's out to get me."

They heard a coyote howl off in the distance. Kosmo quickly turned his head in the direction of the noise and howled back before teleporting away. Keith rolled his eyes.

"Great. Everyone's ditching me for their lovers now." Keith grumbles and makes his way over to the garage.

 **A/N:** I know this chapter may not be written too well...but the next one should be written better! What was your favorite part of this chapter? What predictions do you have for later on in this story? Please give me good feedback if you want me to keep writing this series!


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